Cinnamon vs. Candida

While the picture above is of my rosemary bush and the title says this article is about cinnamon, I came across this article while researching rosemary and the plant was included in the study.  While it was effective, it was the LEAST effective of those studied with cinnamon being the most.  This was quite an interesting article.  I hope you enjoy the summary I wrote!

Taguchi, Takizawa, Ishibashi, Sagawa, Arai, Inoue, Yamaguchu, Abe, (2010) conducted a study to determine herbal effectiveness against candida albicans. Herbs tested were lemongrass, lemon balm, rosemary, roselle, spearmint, green tea, cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), and thyme.  Lemongrass, green tea and cinnamon were the strongest when tested against clove (which had a numbing effect in previous studies making some results difficult to read). Cinnamon was the strongest. 

All herbs were extracted using water at 90 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. This methodology was to test the viability of a tea used medicinally. This extract was then diluted to determine what amount was needed for effectiveness. 

Of the herbs tested, rosemary performed the worst with having to use 25-50% of the extract to get a 50% kill ratio of the candida.  Spearmint was 12.5-25%. Lemon balm and thyme were 6.25-12.5%.  Lemon grass and green tea were less than 6.25% of the extract to achieve a 50% kill ratio.  Cinnamon was put directly in the mouth of the mice instead of in the water and it was 1-5% of the extract.  It took twice as much for each herb to achieve an 80% kill ratio except with cinnamon and clove which was the control. The clove numbers were 5-25% of the extract for both a 50% kill ratio and an 80% kill ratio. 

Since cinnamon doesn’t dissolve completely in water, they wanted to make sure the undissolved particles were included in the treatment, hence the variation. They did a symptom comparison between the control and cinnamon at different ratios.  Only the 100% cinnamon treatment had a significant result in comparison. 

There was about 200 milligrams of solid matter per milliliter in the cinnamon extract. In looking at cinnamon closer, the original extract had 19.5 milligrams per milliliter of cinnamaldehyde and 3.09 milligrams per milliliter of coumarin.  They put it in a centrifuge and tested the top layer (supernatant) and bottom layer (precipitate). The supernatant portion had 5.38 milligrams per milliliter of cinnamaldehyde and .99 milligrams of coumarin while precipitate portion was 3 or 4 times that for each.

In testing effectiveness, the supernatant needed 20-100% dilution while the precipitate was 256-1024%. The dry matter in the precipitate was ten times that of the supernatant.
 
Have a Great Day!

Taguchi, Y., Takizawa, T., Ishibashi, H., Sagawa, T., Arai, R., Inoue, S., Yamaguchu, H., Abe, S. (2010). Therapeutic Effects on Murine Oral Candidiasis by Oral Administration of Cassia (Cinnamomum cassia) Preparation.  Jpn. Med. Mycol. 51: 13-21.