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Very strange reaction between cinnamon and alcohol


svaric2

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First off, hey everyone, this is my first post on these forums. Im just a curious college student who's majoring in bio. But that's not important, what I want to know is what can possibly happen between 4 tablespoons of 80 proof vodka and 2 tablespoons of powdered cinnamon, stirred up, and left to sit at room temperature for, oh say, one whole year?

 

Yep, a loooong time ago I saw a mythbusters episode where they were debating what mouthwashes work best, and they did a cinnamon and vodka mix that stood for, IIRC 4 weeks, (it came out still liquid and tinted very red), and that for some reason made me want to try it. So I took some vodka and some cinnamon and put it in a plastic bottle (the very hard to see through chemical resistant type), shaked it up and let it sit for about 4 weeks. When I checked up on it, it was just like the mythbusters' conconction, I used some of it and left a little in there. I just threw it in the back of a medicine cabinet and completely forget about it, so it's been sitting there for AT LEAST a year at room temp.

 

Now, I was sorting through the cabinet and found it, and looked inside: the cinnamon is clumped and settled at the bottom, and there is about two tablespoons of alcohol in there. Or so I thought, until I poured it out.

 

Let me see if I can explain clearly... the "liquid" I thought was alcohol was really liquidy goo, tinged like light maple syrup, and has the consistency of very runny mucus, but much more smooth and not clumpy. putting my finger on it, it sticks and I can pull my finger up almost 5 inches with it still holding on, but at the same time its so liquidy and runny. Smells like alcohol, but not that strong, and still smells like cinnamon. What could it be???????

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I would guess that the sugars from the starches (grains and whatnot) which made the vodka have coalesced for some reason. I'd wait for a few posts from our members better versed in chemistry than I am, though... The above was just a speculation based on a gut feeling after reading your post. :)

 

 

BTW - Welcome to SFN.

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It's possible that the ethanol evaporated as was suggested before. For that you should try to remember how much there was before and after that 1 year of storage. If there is a significant difference, you lost some solvent (ethanol and possibly water).

 

Another option is that the eugenol (which is a phenolic compound) has reacted with the aldehydes. This is a common reaction to produce resins. Such resins are commonly produced with synthetic phenol (from fossil origin) but are also of interest to the biomass-chemists because the phenolics are one of the few products that can be made from lignin (a plant polymer). The lignin degradation products contain also eugenol and a wide variety of other phenolics. Cinnamon also contains those.

 

Cinnamon also contains Cinnamaldehyde, which could be the aldehyde you need for the resin-producing reaction.

 

But unfortunately I cannot find much about the concentrations of those compounds present in the cinnamon, so it is hard to say if these are present in high enough concentrations to give a reaction of any significance...

 

But a polymerization reaction definitely seems what happened, because of your description of the mucus. Polymer solutions also behave gooey like a gel, like you described, whereas concentrated sugar solutions will behave more like syrup (like a gel vs. sticky).

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Bark certainly contains lignin, which we already established when we said there is eugenol in the mixture.

 

The cellulose is, imho, not likely to do much. There exists a process to treat woods called organosolv. Organosolv is a process where you add ethanol/water mixtures (i.e. vodka) to plant material. It normally goes at 100-200 deg C, and a residence time of minutes up to hours (don't know exactly, it's probably also wood-dependent). The lignin (which is a polymer of phenols and other stuff) and part of the hemicellulose (mostly C5 sugar polymers) will dissolve. The cellulose does not dissolve, which is why it is popular in the paper industry.

 

So the gooey stuff is either the dissolved lignin with ethanol and water. But lignin is, in general, really sticky. Also, it should precipitate out again if you add water (dilute the ethanol). Perhaps you can try that for us: take a small sample, and dilute it with water. With diluting I mean "add at least twice the amount of water as there is ethanol present". (Before you do this, make sure that you don't include all the crap at the bottom of the flask - it should be sort of a clear solution).

 

The longer I think about it, the less likely I think it is that you actually made such resin. Much more likely that you just dissolved, or partially depolymerized lignin.

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bad news, I left the goo on the countertop and I came back from school today, and it's gone. My mom thinks she threw it out. Bummer.

 

But I still have the container with the cinnamon lump on the bottom, and I managed to get like two drops of the goo out of there and dilute with ~2 teaspoons of water. No precipitation.

 

Darn, and Flashman, that was a great idea. lol.

 

Oh well, you'll hear from me again in a year.... farewell.

 

 

 

haha, yeah right.

 

edit: oh and I don't think the alcohol vaporized out, there was still a semi-strong smell of alcohol in the goo. I could also taste it, don't worry, I only stuck the tip of my tongue on it. (teehee)

Edited by svaric2
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Some weird polymer stuff apparently goes on with eugenol (cinnamon oil) and transesterification of it, but I don't know enough about that, just a stab in the dark.

 

Sell it on eBay as angel snot.

 

A couple of points.

Eugenol is the dominant compound in clove oil. The major component of cinnamon is cinnamaldehyde- the hint is in the name.

 

Long ago I tried making cinnamon beer in the way that people make ginger beer- basicly hot water, spice + sugar, leave it to cool then add yeast.

 

If you do this with cinnamon you get a snotty looking mess.

A friend of mine who also likes home-brewing had much the same experience.

 

My guess is that the alcohol has evaporated and the stuff that's left is largey cinamon and water. I don't know if the slime is protein or starch or what, but it seems to be a common occurtence with cinnamon. Since you have formed it without heating I think starch is unlikely but I may be wrong..

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I think I filled the bottle only a quarter of the way, maybe like 6 or 7 tablespoons of vodka, but then it was a loooong time ago and I'm not 100% on that. Besides, if I can still smell the alcohol in that goop, then it obviously still has alcohol in it.

 

Oh and by the way, I just found the little container, my mom didn't throw it away. You guys want to suggest anything I should do to it? Otherwise ill just, i dunno, throw it away or gulp it up. :)

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well, the goop has been standing in open air for almost 4 or 5 days, and its volume is down to about half of what it was. It is a lot more viscous, and around the edges of the container is dried, flaky, light brown stuff. I'm assuming the alcohol is evaporating away.

 

Can I eat it now? :D

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  • 4 weeks later...

Try boiling some cinnamon in water. If I remember correctly, it turns to "gooey snot" from hydrolysis of starches and such present in the inner bark. What seems to have happened is the same thing, just over a much longer period of time since heating was not used.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 years later...

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