Cinnamon as an orchid fungicide - Science or Nonsense

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

There are certainly articles out there relating to studies of anti-fungal properties - such as LINK

Hey, SP, I knew I could count on you to do some research. You were more successful at finding papers that I was. Here's the conclusion of the paper you linked.

"The results showed that the antifungal activity of clove extract was stronger than that of the cinnamon extract at lower concentrations. Infection of grey mould on detached strawberry leaves was suppressed by the application of clove oil at the highest investigated concentration. The cinnamon extract was not that effective at inhibiting the spread of grey mould on strawberry leaves."

It is noteworthy that what was tested was extract, a concentrated form, rather than the powered cinnamomum tree bark sold as a spice. The essential oil that would be extracted is only 0.5 to 1% of the bark.

But - as for orchids ------ I think they just use cinnamon for drying portions of orchid stems/bulbs that have been cut (or operated on). Just for drying out maybe. I don't use cinnamon myself. But I guess ----- if it does help with drying out of cuts on plants, then that's good.

Possibly, but the drying effect is a property of sawdust in general.

As for a natural fungicide ----- pretty sure that we would all be using cinnamon if it was known to be really effective for various sorts of orchid fungal issues. But ------ it looks like that hasn't ever happened.

Don't get me wrong, I love cinnamon. If a recipe calls for a tsp (5ml) I add a TBS (15ml) or more. I do the same with chocolate (yesterday I made a pound cake with 1/2 lb chocolate bars, 8 oz. of chocolate syrup and 1/3 cup of coco).

What worries me about unproven fad remedies is that people will use them instead of something that is proven effective - with the outcome that they lose their patient. I dust all orchid tissue cuts with Thiomyl systemic fungicide on a sterile Q-tip, for example.

-Keith

---------- Post added at 03:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:07 AM ----------

Originally Posted by TZ-Someplace

I think it might be like my mother vehemently saving her teabags and once a week egg shell to augment our half acre of garden soil. My cinnamon is usually too old to trust anyway, but I do want to see if there is any scientific evidence. I was wrong on the ice cube thing.

Good analogy with the teabags and egg shells. Speaking of food, I bet vanilla treated with cinnamon would be delicious.

Thanks for your post!

-Keith