Discrimination of four Cinnamomum species by proximate, antioxidant, and chemical profiling: towards quality assessment and authenticity

• Published in: Journal of food science and technology 2023-10, Vol.60 (10), p.2639-2648
• Main Authors: Rana, Priya, Sheu, Shyang-Chwen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Carbohydrates; Chemical analysis; Chemicals; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Chromatography; Cinnamomum; Coumarin; Flavonoids; Food safety; Food Science; Functional foods & nutraceuticals; Metabolites; Moisture effects; Morphology; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Nutrient content; Nutrition; Nutritive value; Original; Original Article; Phenolic compounds; Phenols; Potassium; Principal components analysis; Quality assessment; Quality control; Radicals; Scavenging; Species; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 0022-1155; 0975-8402
• DOI: 10.1007/s13197-023-05788-y

Cinnamon (genus Cinnamomum ) is a worldwide used spice. The highly valued, non-hepatotoxic C . verum (CV) is frequently adulterated with the cheaper hepatotoxic substitutes ( C . burmannii (CB), C . cassia (CC), and C . loureiroi (CL)). Therefore, this study evaluated four major Cinnamomum species by proximate composition, antioxidant properties, and chemical analysis. The results showed that CB contained more ash and crude protein content. CC exhibited more moisture, crude fat, and nutritive value, while CV had more crude fiber and total carbohydrate content. The 80% methanol extracts of four Cinnamomum species exhibited the highest total phenolic contents (42.16 to 182.85 mg GAE/g), total flavonoid contents (0.80 to 1.07 mg QE/g), DPPH radical scavenging activities (EC 50 , 0.94 to 3.98 mg/mL), and ABTS radical scavenging activities (EC 50 , 0.09 to 0.33 mg/mL). The GC–MS based chemical profiling of CV was markedly different to those of CB, CC, and CL. Compared to the other three species, CV presented the highest eugenol content (5.77%) and the lowest coumarin content (1.90%). Principal component analysis (PCA) accounted for 94.91% of the variability, completely separating CV in quadrant I. Overall, nutritional and chemical profiles in combination with PCA could be effectively applied for monitoring Cinnamomum species, thereby ensuring food safety.