Cinnamomum burmannii decoction: A thickening and flavouring ingredient

abstract

Cinnamon is a spice widely used as a flavouring agent in foodstuffs. Despite its commercial availability and low cost, C. burmannii aqueous extracts obtained by decoction originate high viscous solutions (1545 cP) when compared with C. verum (51 cP), preventing its broad use by food industry. Following the hypothesis that cinnamon polysaccharides are responsible for this viscosity, in this work, the hot water-soluble polysaccharides from C. burmannii were structurally characterized, using C. verum for comparison. The results showed that C. burmannii had a higher content of branched arabinoxylans in relation to C. verum. The hot water-soluble polysaccharides from C. verum comprised also glucans, arabinogalactans, and pectic polysaccharides. The partial mild acid-hydrolysis performed to C. burmannii allowed to reach a viscosity value near to the C. verum solutions, keeping the characteristic aroma profile of cinnamon by the predominance of cinnamaldehyde and other varietal compounds, namely mono and sesquiterpenoids. Therefore, C. burmannii can be used as flavouring and thickening agent, whereas low viscosity products can be obtained by a partial acid-hydrolysis, contributing to its wide application in food industry.

keywords

GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY-OLFACTOMETRY; VOLATILE CONSTITUENTS; ESSENTIAL OILS; GC-MS; BARK; AROMA; ARABINOXYLAN; COMPONENTS; IMPACT

subject category

Food Science & Technology

authors

Nunes, C; Raposo, MFD; Petronilho, S; Machado, F; Fulgencio, R; Gomes, MH; Evtuguin, DV; Rocha, SM; Coimbra, MA

Groups

G4 - Renewable Materials and Circular Economy

Projects

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020)

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDP/50011/2020)

AgroForWealth - Biorefinação de sub-Produtos agrícolas e florestais: uma estratégia de valorização de recursos para o bem estar social e a sustentabilidade (AGROFORWEALTH)

Collaboratory for Emerging Technologies, CoLab (EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES)

acknowledgements

This work was developed within the scope of the project LAQV-REQUIMTE Research Unit (UIDB/50006/2020) and CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020) , financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Sci-ence and Technology/MCTES. Thanks are due to the finantial support of Project AgroForWealth - Biorefinacao de sub-Produtos Agricolas e florestais: uma estrategia de valorizacao de recursos para o bem estar social e a sustentabilidade (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000001) , within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. M.F.J. Raposo thanks the grant (BPD/UI89/7827/2017) and S. Petronilho thanks FCT for Post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/117213/2016) . SP also thanks the financial support of NORTE 2020, under the PT 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the ERDF and FSE. This work was also funded by national funds (OE) through FCT, I.P., in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016 of August 29th, changed by Law 57/2017 of July 19th.