Phytochemical Screening, Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Cinnamon verum Bark

cinnamon dating from 1000 AD when it was firstly recorded in English due to its important as aroma and as herbs. The aim of this study was to investigate phytochemicals constitutes, chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of commercial samples of Cinnamon verum bark. The essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation, while the crude extracts were prepared by three different solvents methanol (70%), acetone and aqueous. Phytochemical screening of crude extracts was performed using standard methods. The essential oil was subjected to GC-MS analysis and tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Eschericchia coli and Candida albicans. The obtained results indicated the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarin, tannins, terpenoids, saponin, glycoside, anthrocyanin and phenolic compounds in the methanolic, aqoueous and acetone extracts of C. verum bark; while the major components of the extracted essential oil of C. verum bark were cinnamaldehyde (85.50%), stigmasterol (3.69%), Cadinene (1.37%), (E)-cinnamaldehyde (1.35%), alpha-amorphene (1.33%), hydrocinnamaldehyde (1.28%), alpha-cubebene (1.25) and ergosterol (1.09%) respectively. The antimicrobial activity result indicated the high activity of the extracted essential oil against all tested microorganisms at high concentration; except in S. typhimurium and C. albicans at concentrations of 25% and 12.5% no activity was noticed. Based in our obtained results the essential oil of C. verum bark had high potential as antimicrobial agent, therefore, recommended for more advanced studies to be conducted on this abundant plant as natural source of antibiotics.