ABSTRACT
Cinnamon and cassia are two established natural food flavours. Food technologists and food manufacturers find it very difficult to imitate them completely with synthetic substitutes. The earliest attempts to imitate cinnamon or cassia flavours were by using synthetic cinnamic aldehyde. Although cinnamic aldehyde gives a very crude imitation of either cinnamon or cassia, it does not closely resemble the natural flavour. Using advanced analytical methods such as gas chromatography, Ter Heide (1972) was able to study in detail the chemical composition of Cinnamomum cassia. Ter Heide claimed that Germany no longer had to depend on imported cassia as his laboratory could compose it from synthetic chemicals. To prove this Ter Heide used GLC methods that exactly matched natural cassia oil, whose GLC charts were the same. He challenged observers to distinguish between the GLC chart of synthetic cassia oil from that of natural cassia oil. Even though many observers failed to distinguish between the two charts, later organoleptic tests revealed a different story. The synthesised cassia oil had a crude resemblance to natural cassia oil, but it was nowhere near the delicate and subtle flavour of the natural oil. It became evident that the ultimate judgment of the flavourist was more sensitive and discriminating. During the 1970s, many essential oil producers feared that their industry may come to a halt as most of their oils were being studied in detail and could possibly have been totally synthesised in the laboratory. But, soon their fears were dispelled as synthetic essential oils were rejected by leading food manufacturers.
