_Cassia Lignea_, _Cassia Bark_.
=Botanical Origin=—Various species of _Cinnamomum_ occurring in the
warm countries of Asia from India eastward, afford what is termed in
commerce _Cassia Bark_. The trees are extremely variable in foliage,
inflorescences and aromatic properties, and the distinctness of several
of the species laid down even in recent works is still uncertain.
The bark which bears _par excellence_ the name of _Cassia_ or _Cassia
lignea_, and which is distinguished on the Continent as _Chinese
Cinnamon_, is a production of the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi and
Kweichau in Southern China. The French expedition of Lieut. Garnier
for the exploration of the Mekong and of Cochin China (1866-68) found
cassia growing in about N. lat. 19° in the forests of the valley of
the Se Ngum, one of the affluents on the left bank of the Mekong near
the frontiers of Annam. A part of this cassia is carried by land into
China, while another part is conveyed to Bangkok.[1949] Although it is
customary to refer it without hesitation to a tree named _Cinnamomum
Cassia_, we find no warrant for such reference: no competent observer
has visited and described the cassia-yielding districts of China
proper, and brought therefrom the specimens requisite for ascertaining
the botanical origin of the bark.[1950]
Cassia lignea is also produced in the Khasya mountains in Eastern
Bengal, whence it is brought down to Calcutta for shipment.[1951] In
this region there are three species of _Cinnamomum_, growing at 1000
to 4000 feet above the sea-level, and all have bark with the flavour
of cinnamon, more or less pure: they are _C. obtusifolium_ Nees, _C.
pauciflorum_ Nees, and _C. Tamala_ Fr. Nees et Eberm.
_Cinnamomum iners_ Reinw., a very variable species occurring in
Continental India, Ceylon, Tavoy, Java, Sumatra and other islands
of the Indian Archipelago, and possibly in the opinion of Thwaites
a mere variety of _C. zeylanicum_, but according to Meissner well
distinguished by its paler, thinner leaves, its nervation, and the
character of its aroma, would appear to yield the cassia bark or wild
cinnamon of Southern India.[1952]
_C. Tamala_ Fr. Nees et Eberm., which besides growing in Khasya is
found in the contiguous regions of Silhet, Sikkim, Nepal, and Kumaon,
and even reaches Australia, probably affords some cassia bark in
Northern India.
Large quantities of a thick sort of cassia have at times been imported
from Singapore and Batavia, much of which is produced in Sumatra.
In the absence of any very reliable information as to its botanical
sources, we may suggest as probable mother plants, _C. Cassia_ Bl. and
_C. Burmanni_ Bl., var. α. _chinense_, both stated by Teijsmann and
Binnendijk to be cultivated in Java.[1953] The latter species, growing
also in the Philippines, most probably affords the cassia bark which is
shipped from Manila.
[1949] Thorel, _Notes médicales du Voyage d’Exploration du Mékong et
de Cochinchine_, Paris, 1870. 30.—Garnier, _Voyage en Indo-Chine_, ii.
(Paris, 1873) 438.
[1950] The greatest market in China for cassia and cinnamon according
to Dr. F. Porter Smith, is Taiwu in Ping-nan hien (Sin-chau fu), in
Kwangsi province.—_Mat. Med. and Nat. Hist. of China_, 1871. 52.—The
capital of Kwangsi is Kweilin fu, literally _Cassia-Forest_.
[1951] Hooker, _Himalayan Journals_, ed. 2. ii. (1855) 303.
[1952] A specimen of the stem-bark of _C. iners_ from Travancore,
presented to us by Dr. Waring, has a delightful odour, but is quite
devoid of the taste of cinnamon.
[1953] _Catalogues Plantarum quæ in Horto Botanico Bogoriensi
coluntur_, Batavia, 1866. 92.
=History=—In the preceding article we have indicated (p. 520) the
remote period at which cassia bark appears to have been known to
the Chinese; and have stated the reasons that led us to believe the
cinnamon of the ancients was that substance. It must, however, be
observed that Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and others,
as well as the remarkable inscription on the temple of Apollo at
Miletus, represent cinnamon and cassia as distinct, but nearly allied
substances. While, on the other hand, the author of the Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea, in enumerating the products shipped from the various
commercial ports of Eastern Africa[1954] in the first century, mentions
_Cassia_ (κμσία or κασσία) of various kinds, but never employs the word
_Cinnamon_ (κινναμώμον).
In the list of productions of India on which duty was levied at the
Roman custom-house at Alexandria, _circa_ A.D. 176-180, _Cinnamomum_
is mentioned as well as _Cassia turiana_, _Xylocassia_ and
_Xylocinnamomum_.[1955] Of the distinction here drawn between cinnamon
and cassia we can give no explanation; but it is worthy of note that
_twigs_ and _branches_ of a _Cinnamomum_ are sold in the Chinese drug
shops, and may not improbably be the _xylocassia_ or _xylocinnamon_ of
the ancients.[1956] The name _Cassia lignea_ would seem to have been
originally bestowed on some such substance, rather than as at present
on a mere bark. The spice was also undoubtedly called _Cassia syrinx_
and _Cassia fistularis_ (p. 221),—names which evidently refer to a
bark which had the form of a tube. In fact there may well have been a
diversity of qualities, some perhaps very costly. It is remarkable that
such is still the case in China, and that the wealthy Chinese employ a
thick variety of cassia, the price of which is as much as 18 dollars
per catty, or about 56_s._ per lb.[1957]
Whether the _Aromata Cassiæ_, which were presented to the Church at
Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, was the modern cassia bark, is
rather doubtful. The largest donation, 200 lb., which was accompanied
by pepper, saffron, storax, cloves, and balsam, would appear to have
arrived from Egypt.[1958] Cassia seems to have been known in Western
Europe as early as the 7th century, for it is mentioned with cinnamon
by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville.[1959] Cassia is named in one of
the Leech-books in use in England prior to the Norman conquest.[1960]
The spice was then sold in London as _Canel_ in 1264, at 10_d._ per
lb., sugar being at the same time 12_d._, cumin 2_d._, and ginger
18_d._[1961] In the _Boke of Nurture_,[1962] written in the 15th
century by John Russell, chamberlain to Humphry, duke of Gloucester,
cassia is spoken of as resembling cinnamon, but cheaper and commoner,
exactly as at the present day.
[1954] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the
Indian Ocean_, ii. (1807) 130. 134. 149. 150. 157.—That the ancients
should confound the different kinds of cassia is really no matter
for surprise, when we moderns, whether botanists, pharmacologists,
or spice-dealers, are unable to point out characters by which to
distinguish the barks of this group, or even to give definite names to
those found in our warehouses.
[1955] Vincent, _op. cit._ ii. 701-716.
[1956] See further on, Allied Products, _Cassia twigs_, page 533.
[1957] Very fine specimens of this costly bark have been kindly
supplied to us by Dr. H. F. Hance, British Vice-Consul at Whampoa.
[1958] Vignolius, _Liber Pontificalis_, Romæ, i. (1724) 94. 95.
[1959] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, lxxxii. (1850) 622.—St. Isidore
evidently quotes Galen, but his remarks imply that both spices were
known at the period when he wrote.
[1960] Cockayne, _Leechdoms, etc., of Early England_, ii. (1865) 143.
[1961] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, ii. (1866)
543.
[1962] The book has been reprinted for the Early English Text Society,
1868.—Russell says:—“Looke that your stikkes of _synamome_ be thyn,
bretille and fayre in colewr ... for _canelle_ is not so good in this
crafte and cure.”—And in his directions “_how to make Ypocras_,” he
prescribes _synamome_ in that “_for lordes_,” but “_canelle_” in that
for “_commyn peple_.”
=Production=—We have no information whether the tree which affords
the cassia bark of Southern China is cultivated, or whether it is
exclusively found wild.
The Calcutta cassia bark collected in the Khasya mountains and brought
to Calcutta is afforded by wild trees of small size. Dr. Hooker who
visited the district with Dr. Thomson in 1850, observes that the trade
in the bark is of recent introduction.[1963] The bark which varies much
in thickness, has been scraped of its outer layer.
Cassia is extensively produced in Sumatra, as may be inferred from
the fact that Padang in that island, exported of the bark in 1871,
6127 peculs (817,066 lb.), a large proportion of which was shipped to
America.[1964] Regarding the collection of cassia on the Malabar coast,
in Java and in the Philippines, no particular account has, so far as
we know, been published. Spain imported from the Philippines by way of
Cadiz in 1871, 93,000 lb. of cassia.[1965]
=Description=—_Chinese Cassia lignea_, otherwise called _Chinese
Cinnamon_, which of all the varieties is that most esteemed, and
approaching most nearly to Ceylon cinnamon, arrives in small bundles
about a foot in length and a pound in weight, the pieces of bark being
held together with bands of bamboo.
The bark has a general resemblance to cinnamon, but is in simple
quills, not inserted one within the other. The quills moreover are less
straight, even and regular, and are of a darker brown; and though some
of the bark is extremely thin, other pieces are much stouter than fine
cinnamon,—in fact, it is much less uniform. The outer coat has been
removed with less care than that of Ceylon cinnamon, and pieces can
easily be found with the corky layer untouched by the knife.
Cassia bark breaks with a short fracture. The thicker bark cut
transversely shows a faint white line in the centre running parallel
with the surface. Good cassia in taste resembles cinnamon, than which
it is not less sweet and aromatic, though it is often described as less
fine and delicate in flavour.
An unusual kind of cassia lignea is imported since 1870 from China and
offered in the London market as _China Cinnamon_,[1966] though it is
not the bark that bears this name in continental trade. The new drug
is in _unscraped_ quills, which are mostly of about the thickness of
ordinary Chinese cassia lignea; it has a very saccharine taste and
pungent cinnamon flavour.
[1963] Hooker, _op. cit._
[1964] _Consular Reports_, August 1873. 953.
[1965] Consul Reade, _Report on the Trade, etc., of Cadiz for 1871_,
where the spice is called “_cinnamon_.”
[1966] Flückiger in Wiggers and Husemann’s _Jahresbericht_ for 1872. 52.
The less esteemed kinds of cassia bark, which of late years have
been poured into the market in vast quantity, are known in commerce
as _Cassia lignea_, _Cassia vera_ or _Wild Cassia_, and are further
distinguished by the names of the localities whence shipped, as
Calcutta, Java, Timor, etc.
The barks thus met with vary exceedingly in colour, thickness and
aroma, so that it is vain to attempt any general classification.
Some have a pale cinnamon hue, but most are of a deep rich brown.
They present all variations in thickness, from that of cardboard to
more than a quarter of an inch thick. The flavour is more or less
that of cinnamon, often with some unpleasant addition suggestive
of insects of the genus _Cimex_. Many, besides being aromatic, are
highly mucilaginous, the mucilage being freely imparted to cold water.
Finally, we have met with some thick cassia bark of good appearance
that was distinguished by astringency and the almost entire absence of
aroma.
=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of such pieces of
_Chinese Cassia lignea_ as still bear the suberous envelope, exhibits
the following characters. The external surface is made up of several
rows of the usual cork-cells, loaded with brown colouring matter.
In pieces from which the cork-cells have been entirely scraped, the
surface is formed of the mesophlœum, yet by far the largest part of
the bark belongs to the liber or endophlœum. Isolated liber-fibres and
thick-walled cells (stone-cells) are scattered even through the outer
layers of a transverse section. In the middle zone they are numerous,
but do not form a coherent sclerenchymatous ring as in cinnamon (p.
526). The innermost part of the liber shares the structural character
of cinnamon with differences due to age, as for instance the greater
development of the medullary rays. Oil-cells and gum-ducts are likewise
distributed in the parenchyme of the former.
The “_China Cinnamon_” of 1870 (p. 530) comes still nearer to Ceylon
cinnamon, except that it is coated. A transverse section of a quill,
not thicker than one millimetre, exhibits the three layers described
as characterizing that bark. The sclerenchymatous ring is covered by a
parenchyme rich in oil-ducts, so that it is obvious that the flavour
of this drug could not be improved by scraping. The corky layer is
composed of the usual tabular cells. The liber of this drug in fact
agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon.
In _Cassia Barks of considerable thickness_, the same arrangement of
tissues is met with, but their strong development causes a certain
dissimilarity. Thus the thick-walled cells are more and more separated
one from another, so as to form only small groups. The same applies
also to the liber-fibres, which in thick barks are surrounded by a
parenchyme, loaded with considerable crystals of oxalate of calcium.
The gum-ducts are not larger, but are more numerous in these barks,
which swell considerably in cold water.
=Chemical Composition=—Cassia bark owes its aromatic properties to an
essential oil, which, in a chemical point of view, agrees with that of
Ceylon cinnamon. The flavour of cassia oil is somewhat less agreeable,
and as it exists in the less valuable sorts of cassia, decidedly
different in aroma from that of cinnamon. We find the sp. gr. of a
Chinese cassia oil to be 1·066, and its rotatory power in a column
50 mm. long, only 0°·1 to the right, differing consequently in this
respect from that of cinnamon oil (p. 526).
Oil of cassia sometimes deposits a stearoptene, which when purified is
a colourless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in shining brittle
prisms.[1967] We have never met with it.
[1967] Rochleder and Schwarz (1850) in Gmelin’s _Chemistry_, xvii. 395.
If thin sections of cassia bark are moistened with a dilate solution
of perchloride of iron, the contents of the parenchymatous part of
the whole tissue assume a dingy brown colour; in the outer layers the
starch granules even are coloured. _Tannic matter_ is consequently one
of the chief constituents of the bark; the very cell-walls are also
imbued with it. A decoction of the bark is turned blackish-green by a
persalt of iron.
If cassia bark (or Ceylon cinnamon) is exhausted by _cold water_,
the clear liquid becomes turbid on addition of iodine; the same
occurs if a concentrated solution of iodide of potassium is added.
An abundant precipitate is produced by addition of iodine dissolved
in the potassium salt. The colour of iodine then disappears. There
is consequently a substance present which unites with iodine; and in
fact, if to a _decoction_ of cassia or cinnamon the said solution of
iodine is added, it strikes a bright blue coloration, due to starch.
But the colour quickly disappears, and becomes permanent only after
much of the test has been added. We have not ascertained the nature of
the substance that thus modifies the action of iodine: it can hardly
be tannic matter, as we have found the reaction to be the same when we
used bark that had been previously repeatedly treated with spirit of
wine and then several times with boiling ether.
The mucilage contained in the gum-cells of the thinner quills of cassia
is easily dissolved by cold water, and may be precipitated together
with tannin by neutral acetate of lead, but not by alcohol. In the
thicker barks it appears less soluble, merely swelling into a slimy
jelly.
=Commerce=—Cassia lignea is exported from Canton in enormous and
increasing quantities. The shipments which in 1864 amounted to 13,800
peculs, reached 40,600 in 1869,[1968] 61,220 in 1871, and 76,464 peculs
(10,195,200 lb.) value £267,703, in 1872.[1969] In 1874 the exports
were 54,268 peculs (1 pecul = 133⅓ lb.) and 58,313 peculs in 1878; from
the other ports of China cassia is not shipped to any extent. England
usually receives no more than about 1,000,000 lb. of cassia, of which
only 40,000 lb. appear to be consumed in the country. Hamburg imports
about 2,000,000 lb. annually immediately from China. Yet in 1878 the
quantity imported into London was 26,744 peculs (3,500,000 lb.), that
received at Hamburg 13,548 peculs.
Cassia lignea is exported in chests containing 2 peculs each.
_Oil of cassia_ was shipped from the south of China to the United
Kingdom, to the extent in 1869 of 47,517 lb.; in 1870, of 28,389
lb.[1970] Hamburg is also a very important place for this oil; in the
official statistics of that port for 1875 the imports from China are
stated to have amounted to 30,000 lb., besides 10,000 lb. imported from
Great Britain; in 1876 Hamburg imported 5,900 lb. from China and 17,000
lb. from England.
=Uses=—The same as those of cinnamon.
[1968] _Canton Trade Report_ for 1869.
[1969] _Commercial Reports from H. M. Consuls in China_, presented to
Parliament 1873,—(Consul Robertson).
[1970] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the United
Kingdom for 1870._ 290.—66,650 were exported in 1877 from Pakhoi.
Allied Products.
_Cassia Twigs_—The branches of the cassia trees, alluded to at page
529, would appear to be collected from the same trees which yield
the cassia lignea. Garnier (_l.c._ at p. 528) says that the youngest
branches are made into fagots, adding that they have the odour of bugs.
Cassia twigs are not as yet exported to Europe, but they constitute a
very important article of the trade of the interior of China. In 1872
no less than 456,533 lb. of this _Wood of Cassia_ or _Cassia Twigs_
were shipped from Canton, for the most part to other Chinese ports.—The
imports of Hankow, in 1874, of these twigs were 1925 peculs (259,667
lb.) valued at 5677 taels (1 tael about equal to 5_s._ 11_d._).[1971]
In the Paris Exhibition of 1878 we had the opportunity of examining
some bundles of cassia twigs from western Kwangtung. The branches were
as much as 2 feet in length and of the thickness of a finger. We found
their bark to possess the usual flavour of cassia lignea.
_Cassia Buds, Flores Cassiæ_—These are the _immature fruits_ of the
tree yielding Chinese cassia lignea, and have been used in Europe since
the middle ages. In the journal of expenses (A.D. 1359-60) of John,
king of France, when a prisoner at Somerton Castle in England, there
are several entries for the spice under the name of _Flor de Canelle_;
it was very expensive, costing from 8_s._ to 13_s._ per lb., or more
than double the price of mace or cloves. On one occasion two pounds
of it had to be obtained for the king’s use from Bruges.[1972] From
the _Form of Cury_[1973] written in 1390, it appears that cassia buds
(“_Flō de queynel_”) were used in preparing the spiced wine called
_Hippocras_.
Cassia buds are shipped from Canton, but the exports have much
declined. Rondot, writing in 1848,[1974] estimated them as averaging
400 peculs (53,333 lb.) a year. In 1866 there were shipped from Canton
only 233 peculs (31,066 lb.); in 1867, 165 peculs (22,000 lb.)[1975]
The quantity of cassia buds imported into the United Kingdom in 1870
was 29,321 lb.;[1976] the spice is sold chiefly by grocers. The great
market for this drug is Hamburg, where in 1876, according to the
official statistics, 1324 cwt. of cassia buds were imported.
In Southern India, the more mature fruits of one of the varieties of
_Cinnamomum iners_ Reinw. are collected for use, but are very inferior
to the Chinese cassia buds.
_Folia Malabathri_ or _Folia Indi_—is the name given to the dried,
aromatic leaves of certain Indian species of _Cinnamomum_, formerly
employed[1977] in European medicine, but now obsolete. Under the name
_Taj-pat_, the leaves are still used in India; they are collected in
Mysore from wild trees.
_Ishpingo_—This is the designation in Quito of the calyx of a tree of
the laurel tribe, used in Ecuador and Peru in the place of cinnamon.
Though but little known in Europe, it has a remarkable history.
[1971] _Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1872_, p. 34;
for 1874, p. 7.
[1972] Doüet d’Arcq, _Comptes de l’Argenterie des Rois de France_,
1851. 206. 218. 222. 239. etc.
[1973] See p. 245, note 8.
[1974] _Commerce d’exportation de la Chine_, 45.
[1975] _Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1867_,
Shanghai, 1868. 49.
[1976] _Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the U.K. for
1870._ 101.
[1977] For further information consult Heyd, _Levantehandel_, ii.
(1879) 663.
The existence of a spice-yielding region in South America, having come
to the ears of the Spanish conquerors, was regarded as a matter of
interest. It would appear that cinnamon was enumerated in the earliest
accounts among the precious products of the New World.[1978] Such high
importance was attached to it that in Ecuador an expedition was fitted
out. The direction of the enterprise was confided to Gonzalo Pizarro,
who with 340 soldiers, and more than 4000 Indians, laden with supplies,
quitted the city of Quito on Christmas Day, 1539. The expedition,
which lasted two years, resulted in the most lamentable failure, only
130 Spaniards surviving the hardships of the journey. In the account
of it given by Garcilasso de la Vega, the cinnamon tree is described
as having large leaves like those of a laurel, with fruits resembling
acorns growing in clusters.[1979] Fernandez de Oviedo[1980] has also
given some particulars regarding the spice, together with a figure
fairly representing its remarkable form; and the subject has been
noticed by several other Spanish writers, including Monardes.[1981]
Notwithstanding the celebrity thus conferred on the spice, and the fact
that the latter gives its name to a large tract of country,[1982] and
is still the object of a considerable traffic, the tree itself is all
but unknown to science. Meissner places it doubtfully under the genus
Nectandra, with the specific name _cinnamomoides_, but confesses that
its flowers and fruits are alike unknown.[1983]
The spice, for an ample specimen of which we have to thank Dr.
Destruge, of Guayaquil, consists of the enlarged and matured woody
calyx, 1½ to 2 inches in diameter, having the shape of a shallow
funnel, the open part of which is a smooth cup (like the cup of an
acorn), surrounded by a broad, irregular margin, usually recurved. The
outer surface is rough and veiny, and the whole calyx is dark brown,
and has a strong, sweet, aromatic taste, like cinnamon, for which in
Ecuador it is the common substitute.
Dr. Destruge has also furnished us with a specimen of the _bark_, which
is in very small uncoated quills, exactly simulating true cinnamon. We
are not aware whether the bark is thus prepared in quantity.
[1978] Account of Petrus Martyr d’Angleria to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza,
in Michael Herr’s _Die neue Welt_, etc., Strassburg, 1534. fol. 175.
[1979] _Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon_, A.D. 1532-50, translated
by Markham (Hakluyt Society) Lond. 1864. chap. 39-40; also _Expedition
of Gonzalo Pizarro to the Land of Cinnamon_, by Garcilasso Inca de la
Vega, forming part of the same volume.
[1980] _Historia de las Indias_, Madrid, i. (1851) 357. (lib. ix. c.
31).
[1981] _De la Canela de nuestras Indias._—_Historia de las cosas que se
traen de nuestras Indias occidentales_, Sevilla, 1574. 98.
[1982] The village of San José de Canelos, which may be considered as
the centre of the cinnamon region, was determined by Mr. Spruce to
be in lat. 1° 20 S., long. 77° 45 W., and at an altitude above the
sea of 1590 feet. The forest of canelos, he tells us, has no definite
boundaries; but the term is popularly assigned to all the upper region
of the Pastasa and its tributaries, from a height of 4000 to 7000
feet on the slopes of the Andes, down to the Amazonian plain, and the
confluence of the Bombonasa and Pastasa.
[1983] De Candolle, _Prodromus_, xv. sect. i. 167.