cinnamon for preserative?

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honor435

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anyone use this? do i use cin eo? or cinn from kitchen, and is it going to smell?
 
Cinnamon is a serious skin irritant. It scalds my husband when he has no other allergies. He can & does use everything w/ no sensitivity.
 
carebear said:
cinnamon as a preservative? in what?
soap, i thought i read somewhere it was a good preserative? i just re read, guess its mor rosemary extract! oops.
 
I read about a study once that applied cinnamon EO to food preservation - something like adding one drop of cinnamon EO to some amount (forgot how much) of carrot soup kept bacterial levels down for somewhere around 2 months in the fridge, while the one without cinnamon EO spoiled in 2 weeks. I can't seem to find it now to link though... and I can't remember if it was bark or leaf EO.

So it's not completely unreasonable. :)

Just not sure how much you would need versus how irritating it is.
 
in what though? soap doesn't need a preservative. and in a lotion I'd not rely on that!
 
carebear said:
in what though? soap doesn't need a preservative. and in a lotion I'd not rely on that!

What about soaps that are superfatted at 10% or similar.
 
Danielito said:
carebear said:
in what though? soap doesn't need a preservative. and in a lotion I'd not rely on that!

What about soaps that are superfatted at 10% or similar.

Though in that case you'd want an antioxidant, not an antibacterial. Though cinnamon might be both, dunno. I was thinking lotion for some reason... I really like handmade lotion and always struggle with what to preserve it with. Been using alcohol so far, though I wonder if tea tree oil would do it and how much it would take. :p
 
Norai said:
Though in that case you'd want an antioxidant, not an antibacterial. Though cinnamon might be both, dunno. I was thinking lotion for some reason... I really like handmade lotion and always struggle with what to preserve it with. Been using alcohol so far, though I wonder if tea tree oil would do it and how much it would take. :p

Yeah, when I hear "soap" and "preservative" in the same sentence I think anti-oxidant. Which to me seems a logical choice when creating soaps that have a higher lye discount.
 
Cinnamon can make a good antioxidant if you are looking for something for DOS. Ground cinnamon must be spread well through out the soap though. Each particle leaches out antioxidants (from what I have observed) a small radius around it, so if they aren't distributed well enough parts may remain unprotected. I liked the smell and didn't find it irritating to the skin (it works really well if you get paint and tough gunk on your hands), but as Tabitha said it can be irritating to some.

I the pic below is some old canola soaps with different treatments and resultant levels of DOS. These are all HP soaps.

1. Oats + Oat flour + Canola (no DOS)
2. Ceylon tea + Canola (no DOS)
3. Cinnamon swirl + Canola (DOS is present in the middle of the plain swirl, but not in the cinnamon swirls or in the narrow perimeter around the swirls)
4. Cocoa powder on the bottom, plain on top Canola (DOS big time in the plain top, no DOS in the bottom, or in the perimeter between the cocoa power and the plain)
5. Plain Canola (DOS big time!)


CanolaSoap.jpg



If you are looking for natural substances with high antioxidant value check out: Cinnamon is third from the top, so it is very high in antioxidants. Cloves are the top dogs.

http://oracvalues.com/sort/orac-value
 

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