Abstract:
Cinnamon is a common spice widespread in Sri Lanka, where cinnamaldehyde is
found to be the main constituent of the cinnamon bark oil. Due to the presence of
Cinnamaldehyde, these species exhibit antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti
inflammatory properties. Cinnamon species indigenous to Sri Lanka belong to the
genus Cinnamomum Zeylanicum. The parts of the cinnamon tree are used for
different purposes. Cinnamon mulch is the outermost bark layer of the cinnamon
tree species, which is discarded as a fertilizer rather than being used for any other
purposes. Therefore, this research work aims to use the cinnamaldehyde extracted
from cinnamon mulch to be used as an ingredient in the process of soap and
scrubber formulation. The cinnamon mulch for this study was obtained from the
Southern province of Sri Lanka. The percentage yield of oil extracted using the
hydro distillation method followed by solvent extraction using hexane and ethyl
acetate and resulted in a yield percentage of 0.75% from the essential oil of
cinnamon mulch. The extracted essential oil was analysed using High
Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with the DAD detector. A soap
was formulated using the cinnamon mulch, sandal wood, turmeric powder, rose
water, glycerin, vitamin E and essential oil extracted from mulch as one of the
ingredients and the antioxidant activity of the formulated soap using cinnamon
mulch was evaluated using the DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl)
scavenging assay along with Trolox as the standard. The IC50 value corresponding
to the soap formulation was 0.146 mg/mL and the standard (Trolox) was 0.002
mg/mL, revealing that the formulated soap possesses good antioxidant properties.
This study reveals that a significant yield of oil can be extracted from cinnamon
mulch using hydro distillation, which possesses a considerable amount of
cinnamaldehyde with good antioxidant properties that can be used to formulate a
product rather than discarding it as a fertilizer.
