A short study on the formation of styrene in cinnamon

摘要

The level of styrene was analysed in different commercial cinnamon samples and the mechanism of formation was studied. Analysis of fresh samples of cinnamon show clearly that styrene is produced in the tree and that it reaches in the inner bark concentrations around 0.1 mg/kg. The concentration in samples collected from the market was measured between 0.3 and 1.9 mg/kg. The effects of γ-irradiation and storage conditions were also studied. The results indicate that the irradiation does not influence the styrene formation. Humidity, connected with temperature is the factor which controls the formation of styrene in cinnamon.