I love powdered cinnamon and therapeutic Cinnamon Bark essential oil from Young Living Essential Oils, which is one of my favorites. It’s especially nice in blends, such as the very popular Thieves essential oil blend. In the study below it was found that cinnamon ‘leaf’ oil from the species Cinnamomum osmophloeum has simplar properties as Cinnamomum cassia, which has a Trans-cinnamaldehyde content of 70-88 percent. Cinnamon Bark Cinnamomum verum has a trans-cinnamaldehyde content of 40-50 percent and a Eugenol content of 20-30 percent. 
This is all worth noting because all aromatherapy oils labeled ‘Cinnamon’ rarely come from any of the species mentioned above – and – even more rarely are they distilled properly from the ‘bark’ – this makes a huge difference in the results, whether used to kill insect pests, killing micro-organisms, or in healing. See my previous article, Does Your Cinnamon Bark and Benefit?
When I read a study with findings like this there are things I would want the reader to know before making any attempt to kill insect pests, the environment, or using the essential oil with humans. First, Cinnamon Bark essential oil is considered a ‘hot’ essential oil; meaning it’s spicy and could irritate skin when used topically, it could also irritate mucous membranes when inhaled if it’s diffused alone for long periods of time, and should always be diluted. Environmentally speaking, any superior quality essential oil could damage plants, beneficial insects, fish, frogs/toads – so always be extremely mindful not to use large amounts and make sure to only target the pest and not something we value to get the best results.
Always remember… ‘one’ drop of a superior quality essential oil is many times more powerful than a large bottle of a lesser quality essential oil!
With the exception of the species Cinnamomum osmophloeum you can very safely assume that ALL cinnamon ‘leaf’ essential oils come nowhere close to having the same properties or results as Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum verum.
The study states that the compound cinnamaldehyde showed the strongest activity at an LC50 (LC50 value is the concentration that kills 50 percent of mosquito larvae in 24 hours) of 29 ppm – this is an extremely small amount of essential oil needed to control mosquito larvae!
Testimonial: Using Thieves in My Garden
This may also explain why and how I get excellent results when I use my Thieves Household Cleaner for insect pest control – and – for eliminating Powdery Mildew on my garden plants. I use the heavy degreasing ratio (shown on the label) in my spray bottle filled with water. Almost always two applications works like a charm! The Thieves essential oil blend contains Cinnamon Bark and is the key ingredient in the Thieves Household Cleaner responsible for addressing my garden pest issues. I also make sure there are no beneficial insects nearby when I spray! ~ Evelyn Vincent
Cassia, Cinnamomum cassia, is a very expensive essential oil – if you find it and it’s not extremely expensive you can be certain that it is NOT a superior quality essential oil with all of it’s natural constituents in tact, not to mention, it would probably be loaded with chemicals that were used during distillation and/or processing.
Young Living does not sell Cassia as an individual purchase. It can only be obtained in a kit called “Twelve Oils of the Ancient Scripture.” Cassia is a very precious oil, one that I would not use to control mosquito larvae. Cassia’s Trans-cinnamaldehyde content is 70-88 percent and the Cinnamyl Acetate content is 0-6 percent.
I only use Cinnamon Bark Cinnamomum verum for my insect and fungal control in the form of the Thieves Household Cleaner diluted in water in a spray bottle - which is a very powerful essential oil having a cinnamaldehyde content of 40-50 percent ,which is far more potant than your average cinnamon leaf oil.
Cinnamon Bark (Cinnamomum verum) essential oil from Young Living is very reasonably priced for home use, at $28.62 for a 5ml bottle retail (24% less at wholesale) making this an effective essential oil to make up your own mosquito larvae, pest and insect control concoction.
Additionally, therapeutic-grade Cinnamon Bark (Cinnamamum verum) essential oil has a very impressive ORAC score of 103,448!
Historical Information
Listed in Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica (A.D. 78), Europe’s first authoritative guide to medicines, the standard reference work for herbal treatments for over 1,700 years. Cinnamon was reputed to be part of the “Marseilles Vinegar” or “Four Thieves Vinegar” used by grave-robbing bandits to protect themselves during the 15th century plague. The Thieves essential oil is a blend based on the “Four Thieves Vinegar.”
Medical Properties of Cinnamon Bark
Cinnamon Bark has many known and important medicinal qualities, some are: anti-inflammatory (COX2 inhibitor), powerfully antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anticoagulant, circulatory stimulant, stomach protectant (ulcers), antiparasitic (worms).
Cinnamon Bark essential oil is found in: All of the Thieves edible toothpastes and KidScents Toothpaste, Egyptian Gold, Exodus II, Gathering, Highest Potential, Magnify Your Purpose and Thieves essential oil blends, Mineral Essence Tincture, Thieves Bar Soap, Thieves, Household Cleaner, Thieves Foaming Hand Soap, Thieves Hard and Soft Lozenges, Thieves Waterless Hand Purifier, Thieves Spray, and Thieves Wipes. Any of these can be purchased here.
Article: Cinnamon Oil Kills Mosquitoes by Michael Bernstein Source EurekAlert!
Cinnamon oil shows promise as a great-smelling, environmentally friendly pesticide, with the ability to kill mosquito larvae, according to a new study published in the July 14, 2004 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
The researchers also expect that cinnamon oil could be a good mosquito repellent, though they have not yet tested it against adult mosquitoes.
Besides being a summer nuisance, mosquitoes pose some major public health problems. While conventional pesticide application is often effective in controlling mosquito larvae before they hatch, repeated use of these agents has raised serious environmental and health concerns.
“These problems have highlighted the need for new strategies for mosquito larval control,” says Peter Shang-Tzen Chang, a professor in the School of Forestry and Resource Conservation at National Taiwan University and lead author of the paper. Scientists are increasingly turning to more benign natural chemicals to ward off mosquitoes and other pests.
Chang and his coworkers tested eleven compounds in cinnamon leaf oil for their ability to kill emerging larvae of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. “Four compounds — cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, eugenol and anethole — exhibited the strongest activity against A. aegypti in 24 hours of testing,” Chang says.
Larvicidal activity is judged with a measurement called LC50. “The LC50 value is the concentration that kills 50 percent of mosquito larvae in 24 hours,” Chang explains. Lower LC50 translates into higher activity, because it takes a lower concentration to kill larvae in the same amount of time. All four compounds had LC50 values of less than 50 parts per million (ppm), with cinnamaldehyde showing the strongest activity at an LC50 of 29 ppm.
Other common essential oils, such as catnip, have shown similar promise in fighting off mosquitoes, but this is the first time researchers have demonstrated cinnamon’s potential as a safe and effective pesticide, according to Chang.
Cinnamaldehyde is the main constituent in cinnamon leaf oil and is used worldwide as a food additive and flavoring agent. A formulation using the compound could be sprayed just like a pesticide, but without the potential for adverse health effects — plus the added bonus of a pleasant smell.
Bark oil from the Cinnamomum cassia tree is the most common source of cinnamaldehyde, but the tree used in this study — indigenous cinnamon, or Cinnamomum osmophloeum — has been of interest to researchers because the constituents of its leaf oil are similar to those of C. cassia bark oil. The leaves of C. osmophloeum, which grows in Taiwan’s natural hardwood forests, could be a more economical and sustainable source of cinnamon oil than isolating it from bark, Chang says.
Though the team only tested the oil against the yellow fever mosquito, cinnamon oil should prove similarly lethal to the larvae of other mosquito species, the researchers say. In further studies they plan to test cinnamon oil against other types of mosquitoes as well as different commercial pesticides.
“We think that cinnamon oil might also affect adult mosquitoes by acting as a repellent,” Chang says. The researchers haven’t yet tested this theory, but they plan to find out in the near future.
The Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan, a government agency in Taiwan, provided support for this research.
Related Articles:
What is an Essential Oil and Knowing How to Distinguish the Real Deal from Junk
Big Black Ants in my Kitchen Killed by Thieves
Peppermint Essential Oil to Repel Squirrel’s and Rodents
Repel Dust Mites, Fleas, Ticks, Ants and Spiders

Evelyn Vincent
Article by Evelyn Vincent, Young Living Independent Distributor #476766
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