Cinnamon-Flavored Foods, Beverages May Cause Liver Damage

UNIVERSITY, Miss.Many kinds of cinnamon, cinnamon-flavored foods, beverages and food supplements in the United States use a form of the spice that contains high levels of a natural substance that may cause liver damage in some sensitive people, according to a new study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Coumarin as an additive or as a constituent of tonka beans or tonka extracts is banned from food in the United States due to its potentially adverse side effects. However, coumarin in food from other natural ingredients is not regulated.

True cinnamon" or Ceylon cinnamon refers to the dried inner bark of Cinnamomum verum. Other cinnamon species, C. cassia, C. loureiroi and C. burmannii, commonly known as cassia, are also sold in the United States as cinnamon. True" cinnamon is expensive, so most breads, sticky buns and other products in the United States use dried cassia bark, or cassia cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon contains very little coumarin; however, cassia cinnamon can contain larger amounts.

For the study, researchers at the University of Mississippi analyzed coumarin and other marker compounds in authenticated cinnamon bark samples, as well as locally bought cinnamon samples, cinnamon-flavored foods and cinnamon-based food supplements using a validated UPLC-UV/MS method.

Results indicated that C. verum bark contained only traces of coumarin, whereas barks from all three cassia species, especially C. loureiroi and C. burmannii, contained substantial amounts of coumarin. These species could be potential sources of coumarin in cinnamon-flavored food in the United States. Coumarin was detected in all locally bought cinnamon, cinnamon-flavored foods, and cinnamon food supplements. Their chemical profiles indicated that the cinnamon samples and the cinnamon in food supplements and flavored foods were probably Indonesian cassia, C. burmannii.