Cinnamon leaf oil is obtained by steam distillation of cinnamon leaves and the oil yield ranges between 0.5% and 1.8%. More than 47 compounds have been identified from the leaf oil, the most significant being eugenol, which constitutes 65–92%. Cinnamon leaf oil is cheaper than bark oil and is used in the flavour industry, to a lesser extent, to flavour confectionary. It is also used as a source of eugenol for the preparation of synthetic vanillin. Cinnamon oleoresin obtained by solvent extraction is a dark brown extremely concentrated and viscous liquid, closely approximating the total spice flavour and containing 50% or more volatile oil.
Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil CAS 8015-91-6
Cinnamon Leaf Oil is a yellow to brownish- yellow oil of warm-spicy, but rather harsh odor, lacking the rich body of the bark oil. It has some resemblance to the odor of clove leaf oil and clove stem oil. The flavor is somewhat bitter, slightly pungent, irritant-burning, but very spicy and powerful.
The oil is used in perfumery for its spicy notes and its warm and woody-Oriental type. In the chemical industry, it is used for the isolation of eugenol (from which again vanillin and other derivatives are produced), and in flavors, as a modifier in spice blends, as a “warm” note in certain fruit essences, e.g. cherry, raspberry and prune, in chocolate and liqueur flavors, in soft drinks and candy, etc. It blends well with benzaldehyde, anisaldehyde, anisalcohol, vanillin, ethylvanillin (so-called), peppermint oil, nonanolide and undecanolide, many glycidates, ionones (and ionone-glycidates), cinnamic alcohol, etc.
Arctander, Steffen . Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin (p. 199).