ISO 6539:2014—Cinnamon (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum Blume)
Cinnamon is considered to be one of the first traded spices in the ancient word. It was so valuable during this time that it was equal in worth to gold and ivory and regarded as a suitable gift for monarchs and gods. Today, cinnamon is a widely available spice used daily across households, businesses, and industries around the world. ISO 6539:2014—Cinnamon (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum Blume) – Specification provides requirements for cinnamon.
What Makes Cinnamon Unique?
Cinnamon is an aromatic spice made using the inner barks of the tropical evergreen tree known as Cinnamomum zeylanicum that are dried until they curl into rolls, known as cinnamon sticks or quills. These are also used to make cinnamon powder or into an extract once grounded, which often flavors a variety of foods from confections, curries, beverages, and baked goods.
The unique properties of this spice come from its essential oils and compounds, particularly cinnamaldehyde. This compound gives cinnamon its flavor and aroma and is responsible for many of its health benefits, including supporting blood sugar control, protecting against heart disease, and reducing inflammation. The essential oil distilled from the bark fragments are used in food, liqueur, perfume, and drugs.
What Is ISO 6539?
ISO 6539:2014 specifies requirements for whole or ground (powdered) cinnamon, of the Sri Lankan, Madagascan and Seychelles types; this cinnamon is the bark of the tree or shrub Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume.
The requirements for cassia (Chinese type, Indonesian type and Vietnamese type) are given in ISO 6538.
History of Cinnamon around the World
The Ancient Egyptians used cinnamon and cassia (a variety of cinnamon) along with myrrh in embalming, perhaps because cinnamic acid (and also myrrh) has antibacterial effects. The Hebrews, and others, used cinnamon and cassia in religious ceremonies. In Mexico, Asiatic countries, Arabia, and North Africa, it was valued in cooking. The Roman empire imported huge amounts of cinnamon, and it may have been used mostly in perfumes and fragrances and to flavor wines, but they did not favor it as a cooking spice.
In the Middle Ages, physicians used cinnamon to help treat cold and throat ailments such as coughing, hoarseness and sore throats. The spice became a favorite flavor in many banquet foods and was regarded as an appetite stimulator, a digestive, and an aphrodisiac. Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon on a “cinnamon route” to East Africa, where local traders then carried it north to the Roman market; Arab traders brought the spice through trade routes into Egypt, where it was bought by Venetian traders from Italy who held a monopoly on the spice trade in Europe.
The Cinnamon Trade
In the early 16th century, the Portuguese discovered true cinnamon of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) and controlled the trade with great cruelty. An increasing demand for cinnamon led to the Dutch fighting the Portuguese. During the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company took control of the island of Ceylon and the monopoly of the trade. When the Dutch East later learned that cinnamon trees existed along the Malabar coast of India, they made certain to destroy the cinnamon trees found growing along this coast in order to preserve their high profits on this spice.
Eventually, however, the Dutch monopoly over cinnamon from Ceylon disappeared. The world found out that they could grow the spice successfully in other locations and cinnamon became less fashionable in cooking and in wine making. Today, cinnamon is grown in South America, the West Indies, and other tropical climates.
Types of Cinnamon
ISO 6539:2014 details specifications for three types of cinnamon:
Sri Lankan
This is the dried bark of cultivated varieties of the species Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume of the Lauraceae family. Sri Lankan type cinnamon is produced in four forms:
- Quills
- Quillings
- Featherings
- Chips
Seychelles
This is the bark of trunks or branches of Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume, cultivated on the Seychelles. Seychelles type cinnamon is produced in three forms:
- Rough cinnamon bark, which consists of slightly curved, elongated, irregular, medium or small pieces of the whole unscraped bark
- Scraped cinnamon bark, which is obtained from younger shoots from bushes of the same species where the shoots are scraped with a curved knife before the bark is detached from the wood;
- Quills and quillings, which are prepared from the young shoots, of bushes in a way similar to that used for Sri Lankan type cinnamon
Madagascan
This is the bark of trunks or branches of Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume, which grows wild on
Madagascar. It is produced in either of the two forms:
- In the form of simple, hollow tubes of unscraped or scraped bark, of rather coarse appearance, about 30 cm long, cut from smaller branches with a knife
- More usually, in the form of unscraped or scraped pieces of bark from the larger branches and trunks, broken off with the flat side of a hatchet.
ISO 6539:2014—Cinnamon (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum Blume) – Specification is available on the ANSI Webstore.
