engleski

Determination of coumarin in cinnamon and cinnamon-containing products

Coumarin is a component present in natural flavors including cassia, which in addition to being a spice, is very often used in the production of bakery products, biscuits, cereals and various beverages. Given the demonstrated toxicity of coumarin, there has been an increase in concern in the food industry where a maximum intake of 2 mg kg-1 has been set for foods and beverages in general, and a maximum level of 10 mg dm-3 for alcoholic beverages. An efficient method for extraction and routine analysis of coumarin was developed in the present study for the estimation of coumarin and other phenolics in samples of cinnamon and teas containing cinnamon on the Croatian market. Process parameters include solvent selection (methanol and ethanol), extraction times (10 and 30 min), and extraction temperatures (30 and 50 °C), as well as appropriate extraction techniques (mixing with heating and ultrasonically assisted extraction (UAE)). Since the temperature rise did not lead to a significant increase in coumarin concentration, nor with the use of UAE, the optimal sample preparation for cinnamon and cinnamon-containing teas was found to be extraction of 500 mg sample with 1 cm3 of methanol for 10 min at 30 °C using magnetic stirring. Coumarin content in the tested cinnamons on the market, depending on the extraction technique, amounted to 7.41-200.58 mg kg-1, while the amount of coumarin in teas with cinnamon was 3.15-51.60 mg kg-1. The obtained results show that the content of coumarin in the products is not high, which speaks in favor of the use of authentic cinnamon and less use of cinnamon in teas.

coumarin ; cinnamon ; HPLC ; ultrasound-assisted extraction

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