DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v28i4.238

Keywords: Cinnamon Extract, cinnamaldehyde, wound healing gel, hot water extraction (HWE), Disk Diffusion Test

Abstract

Cinnamomum zeylanicum tree bark is rich in cinnamaldehyde, eugenol and camphor, contributing to its medicinal properties, including antimicrobial, anti-inflammation and antioxidant. This research looks into extraction of active compounds from cinnamon barks for formulation of natural wound healing gel. Current extraction processes are found to be time consuming with low productivity. Thus, we proposed a simple hot extraction process. Cinnamon barks were crushed into smaller pieces for Hot Water Extraction (HWE) under different temperatures, extraction times and solid-to-liquid ratio for the optimum yield of cinnamon extract. The extract was sent for Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to verify the presence of cinnamaldehyde and extract compositions. The gels formulated based on cinnamon extract and cinnamon oil were sent for rheology tests and Disk Diffusion Test with the latter benchmarking the flow properties and antimicrobial performances. When the extraction temperature increases from 60℃ to 120℃, the total percentage of cinnamaldehyde increases from 3.01% to 3.08%. When the extraction time increases from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, the total percentage of cinnamaldehyde increases from 3.03% to 3.15%. However, only cinnamon oil gel samples show positive antimicrobial results of 10.3±0.5 mm, suggesting that high extraction temperature and long extraction time might degrades the cinnamaldehyde.