Field survey of cinnamon in Viet Nam

A field survey of cinnamon in Viet Nam was performed during the period from 1999 till 2001. Interviews were carried out three times covering most of the famous cinnamon producing sites in Viet Nam. Through the interviews, various aspects of current status of cinnamon production were told by the villagers and it turned out that there might be two types of cinnamon trees in Viet Nam, one is the Tra My type and the other is the Thanh Hoa type. They are very similar in the morphological characteristics of leaves and trunks but it is said that they have different fruit shapes. Tra My trees are mainly cultivated in the central part of Viet Nam, namely in Quang Nam province, and their cinnamon products are labeled as MN cinnamon, whereas Thanh Hoa trees are cultivated in northern districts such as the Yen Bai, Thanh Hoa, and Quang Ninh provinces. Oil analyses of those cinnamon barks revealed that MN cinnamon contained much more oil than YB cinnamon but neither of them was distinguishable by its constituents. Though further experiments are required, it might be suggested that the plant species origins of MN and YB cinnamon are different, Cinnamomum loureiloi for MN cinnamon and C. cassia for YB cinnamon.