chief
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cinnamon oil vs. cinnamon aldehyde
I bought myself some "100 % Oil from cinnamon leaves", but it fails to have the characteristic high refractive index of near 1.60 ; it has only 1.54
and also doesn't smell as heavy as the other cinnamon oil I have .
Now: Since the package says: "100 % ethereal oil", does this mean that the cinnamon-leaves give another oil, and not clean cinnamon-aldehyde, or did
they just betray me ?
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Bromide
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Difference between "cinnamon oil" and "cinnamon leaf oil"
| Quote: | Originally posted by chief; bold added by Bromide
I bought myself some "100 % Oil from cinnamon leaves", but it fails to have the characteristic high refractive index of near 1.60 ;
it has only 1.54 and also doesn't smell as heavy as the other cinnamon oil I have .
Now: Since the package says: "100 % ethereal oil", does this mean that the cinnamon-leaves give another oil, and not clean cinnamon-aldehyde, or did
they just betray me ? |
The problem appears to be that you purchased "cinnamon LEAF oil", which contains primarily eugenol, whereas the oil commonly known as simply "cinnamon
oil" refers to the oil obtained from the bark of the cinnamon tree (and/or the cassia tree if the product is from North America) and which contains
primarily cinnamaldehyde.
So if you want cinnamaldehyde, then you should order "cinnamon oil" rather than "cinnamon leaf oil."
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kclo4
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Well, at least eugenol still has uses. What concentration is eugenol found in cinnamon leaves?
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chief
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What uses has the eugenol ? I only found something about synthesizing vanilline (by oxidation with KMnO4) and killing Mosquitos ...
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kclo4
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There is a lot of stuff on the rhodium archive about its demethylation and all sorts of stuff like that relate to making MDMA from it, but legal uses
are it can form a cement type material with Zinc oxide.
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Sauron
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Yeah, all that stuff on rhodium archive about eugenol and vanillin as precursors for illegal drugs,.
Chief, if you want cinnamaldehyde, make cinnamaldehyde.
See Merck Index
Essential oils are rarely if ever a pure single compound. There are two volumes on the subject in the forum library available for free download. I
suggest you have recourse to them.
This may help you to avoid buying the wrong oil in the future.
Eugenol is rather common but the main source is oil of cloves. It smells nothing like cinammon. It smells like...cloves.
The original synthesis of cinnamaldehyde was by aldol condensation of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde.
Bear in mind that aromatic aldehydes are easily oxidized so you might want to store your cinnamaldehyde as the bisulfite adduct or as an acetal.
Cinnamon bark oil is c.90% cinnamaldehyde. The same cautions apply,, distilling it ought to be done under N2 or Ar unless you want to end up with a
lot of cinnamic acid.
[Edited on 15-3-2009 by Sauron]
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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benzylchloride1
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I have used cassia oil which is around 90% cinnamaldehyde for the synthesis of 1,4-diphenylbutadiene via the Wittig reaction. The yield was around 30%
because of the impure cinnamaldehyde and the fact that the reaction was run in aqueous solution using some of the benzyl triphenyl phosphonium
chloride as a phase transfer catalyst. Next time I will vacuum distill the essential oil and collect a fraction with a narrow boiling point.
Amateur NMR spectroscopist
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