• Leading researcher Dr. T.C. Ariyasena speaks on the analysis of cinnamon constituents in industrial environmental compartments and chemical reactors

In Sri Lanka, among the many commercial industries which use native spices as raw materials, the food and perfumery industries related to cinnamon products are of significance as Sri Lanka provides around 80% of the world’s commercially-utilised cinnamon.

That said, any chemical component ingested or exposed to humans exceeding the recommended levels, may lead to harmful health effects. Therefore, in cinnamon industries, although the constituents in cinnamon are naturally occurring substances, risk assessment and waste management procedures have become important when the volatile cinnamon constituents are released to the atmosphere and when the water soluble constituents are released to the water. In this regard, estimating the concentrations of cinnamon constituents is important.

However, determining the concentrations of cinnamon constituents practically in commercial-scale chemical reactors and environmental compartments are a tedious task due to the requirement of many measurements to achieve an average value, which in turn needs technical, economical and human resources, a task which is challenging to developing countries like Sri Lanka owing to limitations with regard to finances and technology.

Hence, there is a need to determine the chemical constituents in cinnamon through environmental modelling, and towards this end,  University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Science’s Department of Chemistry - Senior Lecturer Dr. J.A. Thiloka Chandima Ariyasena and a research team successfully conducted a research project to develop a technique that can successfully add value to the national economy by saving monetary resources. Dr. Ariyasena spoke to The Daily Morning on the analysis of cinnamon constituents in environmental compartments and chemical reactors in industries.

Following are excerpts from the interview:  

How is an environmental risk assessment done? 

Every day, numerous chemicals are being released to the environmental compartments. Maintaining proper quality in the air, water, soil and sediment-based compartments is important as severe pollution levels may cause damage to the ecosystems and cause adverse health effects to humans. Environmental risk assessment procedures established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union have four major steps which define the health risk posed by a chemical constituent to the particular environmental compartment considered. These steps are hazard identification, dose response assessment, exposure assessment and risk characterisation. Hazard identification is identifying whether a chemical constituent is capable of causing an increase in adverse health effects in humans. Dose response assessment evaluates the extent of the severity of the damage caused to human health with respect to the chemical stressor. The predicted no-effect concentration is the highest concentration of the chemical that can be exposed or administered without manifesting an increase in adverse effects. Exposure assessment evaluates the concentration, frequency and the duration of the chemical which comes in contact with the human. In exposure assessment, the predicted environmental concentration, which is the concentration level of the chemical in the environmental compartment, is determined. In the fourth step, the extent of the risk is characterised by determining the ratios between the predicted environmental concentration to the predicted no effect concentration. Therefore, determining the concentration levels of chemicals in the environmental compartments is a major step in risk assessment procedures.

What is its application in chemical-based industries? 

Not only in environmental risk assessment, but also in chemical industries, determining the chemical concentrations becomes important. In chemical industries, many chemicals are used to manufacture commercial products. These chemicals should be included in the correct ratios in order to meet the consumer demand and to avoid health related risks. For example, in the food industry, colouring and flavouring agents should be in the accepted concentrations so that they give the expected flavor and colour while avoiding possible allergies and harmful effects. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is critical to incorporate the chemicals in standard percentages to achieve the expected result of a drug and to avoid hazardous effects. Therefore, in chemical industries, rigourous testing and quality control methods are used in order to monitor the concentration levels in the consumer products.

Why does this concern Sri Lanka’s cinnamon?

In Sri Lanka, there are many commercial industries which use native spices as raw materials. Among them, the industries related to cinnamon products are of significance as Sri Lanka provides around 80% of the commercially-utilised cinnamon worldwide. Cinnamomum verum, the cinnamon of commerce, is an indigenous plant of Sri Lanka and India. Cinnamon extracts and its constituents are used in the food industry as well as in the perfumery industry. In the perfumery industry, the different levels of chemicals give different aromas. In commercial scale chemical reactors, the concentrations of cinnamon constituents should be maintained at the proper levels in order to obtain the expected quality of the final product. Therefore, the frequent monitoring of the constituent levels within the reactors should be carried out.

Any chemical component ingested or exposed to humans exceeding the recommended levels established by the World Health Organisation guidelines, may lead to harmful health effects. Therefore, in cinnamon-based industries, risk assessment and waste management procedures become important although the constituents in cinnamon are naturally-occurring substances. When the volatile constituents are released to the atmosphere and when the water soluble constituents are released to the water, proper waste management procedures should be followed. In order to determine the risk posed by the released cinnamon constituents, estimating the concentrations of cinnamon constituents in environmental compartments is important when following the standard environmental risk assessment procedures.

What is the contribution of the innovation that you and the research team developed?

Determining the concentrations of cinnamon constituents practically in commercial reactors and environmental compartments may however become a tedious task for scientists due to many measurements being needed to reach an average value. Although developed countries have the needed technical, economic and human resources to obtain the required number of measurements, this task may be challenging to developing countries like Sri Lanka due to the lack of monetary resources and the required technology.

Therefore, environmental modelling, specially the quantitative structure property relationships, are used to estimate the chemical constituents in cinnamon. A research team and I have successfully conducted a research project in this regard together with the National Research Council of Sri Lanka. We were able to determine what is known as ‘descriptor values’ for cinnamon constituents for several constituents in cinnamon including cinnamyl acetate, methyl cinnamate, and ethyl cinnamate, so that their distribution in industrial reactors and environmental compartments can be successfully estimated. This will reduce the number of experimental trials needed to reach an average value, thus reducing the cost needed to obtain the number of replicates to determine the concentrations. 

This technique will add value to the Sri Lankan economy, especially in a situation where the country needs to save money in every possible field. By allowing the estimation of concentration levels easily at an earlier stage of the process, the complexity and the cost of the commercial manufacturing process will be reduced.