Abstract:
The study was conducted to assess the quantity and quality parameters of the cinnamon bark oil based on the· method of processing and to detennine the best resting period for peeled cinnamon bark prior to distillation. A laboratory experiment was conducted at the Cinnamon Research Station, Thihagoda and the field trial was conducted at the research fann, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Mapalana. The experiment had four treatments (manual processing without scraping the outer layer of the bark, manual processing with scraping the outer layer of the bark, machine processing without scraping the outer layer of the bark, machine processing with scraping the outer layer of the bark) with three replicates. The bark processing methods were evaluated for quality and quantity parameters of the cinnamon bark oil, with different resting periods prior to distillation. Clevenger's ann method was used to detennine the oil yield and, moisture content was determined by the Dean and Stark method and GLC was used to analyze the oil quality. The average bark oil yield of the manually processed and machine processed scraped bark were 60% and 30% respectively higher than the non-scraped bark. There was no significant (P=0.05) difference in the oil quality of scraped and non scraped bark. The oil content was not significantly different between the machine operation and manual operation. The optimum moisture content of the peeled bark for the maximum bark oil content was about 18-20% (w.b.) in each treatment. Maximum oil content in the manually processed bark and the machine processed bark were observed at 5 days and 7 days after the peeling of the bark. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in quality and quantity parameters of the bark oil between the machine processed with scraped and non- scraped barks. It was observed that the peeling by the prototype machine is more economical for bark oil production. The bark oil production from the machine processed non scraped bark is more cost-effective than other methods. From the cost and benefit analysis it was revealed that the bark oil was more profitable than the quills production.
