Currently, cinnamon is widely used in pharmaceutical preparations, seasonings, cosmetics, foods, drinks, commodity essences and chemical industries, and it has become one of the most important natural plant resources and has significant economic value. Cinnamon has been identified to possess excellent anti-inflammatory (Chao et al., 2005), antioxidant (Mancini-Filho et al., 1998, Murcia et al., 2004), anticancer (Shan et al., 1999, Schoene et al., 2005) and antibacterial properties (Chang et al., 2001). Specifically, cinnamaldehyde is the primary component of cinnamon oils (China Pharmacopeia Commission, 2010). Essential oils are important components of cinnamon bark, and these oils contain large quantities of terpenes and aromatic compounds.

Cinnamon bark is used as a major medicinal substance in China (China Pharmacopeia Commission, 2010).

The output of cinnamon oil from the Guangxi and Guangdong provinces accounts for approximately 80% of the world market share. China has abundant cinnamon resources and is the major producing country of cinnamon, which is primarily cultivated in the Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian and Hainan provinces. Our research indicated that GC–MS and FTIR techniques, combined with chemometrics, proved to be an effective strategy for identifying the species and for determining their geographical distribution, especially in the assessment of cinnamon quality for use in raw herbal medicines.Ĭinnamon belongs to the Lauraceae family and is an important traditional herbal medicine that is widely distributed in China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Seychelles and India. Load factor analysis revealed that the differences in the volatile compounds of the nine samples were mainly reflected in the aldehyde, alcohol, alkane and eugenol contents. Hierarchical cluster analysis, similarity evaluation and principal component analysis showed that the nine samples were effectively identified and evaluated. Cinnamomum verum contained significant quantities of eugenol, and Cinnamomum cassia had more abundant α-guaiene compared with C. Cinnamomum loureirii had the highest volatile oil yield (3.08%) and in that yield was a high percentage of trans-cinnamaldehyde (81.97%). GC–MS analysis indicated that the main compound in the volatile oils of nine samples was trans-cinnamaldehyde (66.28–81.97%). In this work, the volatile compounds of cinnamon barks from three species and seven habitats were detected and identified for the first time by GC–MS and FTIR analysis.

Essential ftir