Page 151 - Pharmacognosy-I (02-06-06-102)

Cassia Bark
Chinese Cinnamon

Cassia is the dried bark of cinnamomum cassia family lauraceae.

Macroscopic characters : It occurs in channeled pieces or

single quills.
-The outer surface is darker than that of Ceylon cinnamon
owing to presence of patches of grey cork.
-The fracture : is short in the cortex and fibrous in the inner
part.
-The odour : Coarser than that of cinnamon, and the taste is
more astringent.

Microscopic characters :

Transverse sections resemble cinnamon as far as inner part of
the bark is concerned, except that the starch grains and phoem
fibres are some what larger (starch exceed 10  in diameter and fibres 45
M in width).
Out side the sclerenchymatous band, however is formed the cortex and
cork layer.
a- The cork is formed of 2-3 rows of suberised cells followed by 2-4

rows of thick walled lignified cells and an inner most layer of thick
outer wall.
b- The cortex is formed of tangentially elongated parenchymatous cells
and showing sclereids either isolated or in small groups.

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