Ceylon vs. Cassia Cinnamon: Species, Flavor and Coumarin Compared

That jar labeled “cinnamon” could hold bark from any of at least four different trees. In North America it’s most likely cassia, the strong, hot, fairly one-note kind. Ceylon, the “true” cinnamon from Sri Lanka, is milder and more layered, and once you know what to look for you can often tell the two apart by the stick. The difference goes past flavor, too: cassia can carry a lot of coumarin, a natural flavor compound that Ceylon has only in traces.¹ If you bake with cinnamon often or take it every day, that’s worth knowing.

Ceylon comes from Cinnamomum verum. “Cassia” is a trade group of three other species: Chinese, Indonesian and Vietnamese (Saigon) cassia.

They’re all in the laurel family, Lauraceae, along with the bay laurel that gives you bay leaves.

Side by side

That flavor difference fits the oil chemistry. Ceylon bark oil has a real share of eugenol alongside its cinnamaldehyde, while the cassia oils are mostly cinnamaldehyde with little or no eugenol.³⁴ Want more on each one? See Ceylon cinnamon, cassia cinnamon, Saigon cinnamon and Korintje cinnamon, the Indonesian type.

Coumarin: how much is in each

Coumarin swings so widely by species, origin and sample that a single “cassia number” is misleading. Each figure below goes with the samples it was measured on.

What the table tells you, and what it doesn’t:

• Cassia isn’t one number. In the US study, the authenticated Chinese cassia sample (0.310 g/kg) had far less coumarin than the Indonesian (2.14 g/kg) and Vietnamese (6.97 g/kg) samples, and US commercial Indonesian cassia ran higher still.⁵ Even so, the authors found substantial coumarin in all three cassia species.¹
• Ceylon is low, not zero. The Sri Lankan commercial bark range tops out at 0.9 g/kg,⁵ and the NIH says Ceylon “may contain a trace amount.”⁹ The table we worked from doesn’t say why that range runs so high.
• Every grocery-store sample in the US study had some coumarin. That’s every cinnamon, cinnamon-flavored food and supplement the researchers bought locally.¹
• The German retail ratio. In a 2010 study of 91 cinnamon samples from German stores, cassia powder averaged up to 63 times more coumarin than Ceylon powder, and cassia sticks 18 times more than Ceylon sticks.¹⁰ Those ratios describe those German samples. Don’t stretch them to cinnamon in general.

What the coumarin limit means in practice

EFSA set a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.1 mg of coumarin per kg of body weight in 2004 and kept it in its 2008 review.¹¹ BfR uses the same figure.⁶ EFSA also concluded that three times the TDI for one to two weeks isn’t a safety concern, so the odd cinnamon-heavy week isn’t the problem. Steady daily intake is.

Take cassia at its average German monitoring level of about 3 g/kg, and BfR works out that:⁶

• a 60 kg adult hits the TDI at about 2 g of cassia a day;
• a 15 kg small child hits it at about 0.5 g a day.

Those figures move with the coumarin content. By our math, at the 10 g/kg maximum BfR reports, the adult figure drops to about 0.6 g. At the Ceylon authenticated-sample level of 0.017 g/kg, it climbs past 300 g, far more than anyone eats.

Your body absorbs the coumarin in cinnamon almost as well as pure coumarin. That’s from a crossover trial with 24 volunteers, whose authors concluded the TDI can be used to judge exposure from meals that contain cinnamon.¹²

What the risk is. Relatively low doses can cause liver damage in a small group of especially sensitive people, BfR says, in severe cases inflammation of the liver with jaundice. BfR also notes that no such cases had been described from eating cinnamon itself. Very large doses over long periods caused cancer in rats and mice, but BfR says there are no indications that coumarin triggers tumors in humans.⁶ The NIH adds that ordinary use of cassia usually doesn’t supply enough coumarin to cause significant problems, though prolonged use could matter for sensitive people, such as those with liver disease.⁹

Not the blood thinner. You’ll often see the coumarin in cinnamon linked to the anticoagulant warfarin. France’s food-safety agency, ANSES, says the anticoagulant properties credited to coumarins belong to dimeric derivatives, in particular dicoumarol, which forms when sweet clover ferments after fungal contamination. Simple coumarins don’t have them. Warfarin and acenocoumarol, the oral anticoagulant drugs, are coumarin derivatives made synthetically. ANSES found no published data showing drug interactions with coumarin itself or with plants that contain only coumarin.¹³

Where it adds up. The EU doesn’t limit coumarin in cinnamon itself. It does cap it in some foods made with cinnamon: 50 mg/kg in traditional or seasonal baked goods labeled as containing cinnamon, for example, and 5 mg/kg in desserts.⁶ By BfR’s math, a small child would reach the TDI eating 30 g of cinnamon stars a day, and an adult would need more than 120 g. Supplements are the other worry. BfR warns they can be high in coumarin, and its 2006 assessment recommended warnings on cinnamon products sold to lower blood sugar.⁷ (The NIH finds no clear support for using cinnamon for any health condition.⁹)

Telling them apart. Once they’re ground, the two are hard to tell apart by eye, so BfR suggests buying packs labeled “Ceylon cinnamon.”⁶

Can one stand in for the other?

Mostly, yes. Cinnamon and cassia bark are interchangeable in many applications. The dish will still work. What changes is how it turns out:

• Cassia in place of Ceylon. It’s stronger and more one-note, so start with less and taste as you go. The bigger reason to pick Ceylon is coumarin. If cinnamon is a daily habit (oatmeal, coffee, smoothies) or you cook for small children, Ceylon keeps you far from the TDI.
• Ceylon in place of cassia. You may need more to get the same punch. You’ll notice the difference most in simple things like cinnamon toast. In spice blends and long braises, it narrows.
• Sticks vs. ground. Swapping whole for ground? See ground cinnamon vs. cinnamon sticks.

Where you’ll find Ceylon

In North America, most of the cinnamon on the shelf is cassia,⁹ and PROSEA notes a clear US preference for cassia, especially Vietnamese.⁴ Mexico is a different story. Cinnamon tops Sri Lanka’s list of exports to Mexico, worth USD 91 million in 2025,¹⁴ and Sri Lanka is the main producer of Ceylon cinnamon. You’ll often hear that Mexican and Latin American groceries are a good place to find Ceylon, but no source we reviewed measures what those shops actually stock. Wherever you shop, check the label for “Ceylon” or Cinnamomum verum.

Related

• Saigon vs. Ceylon cinnamon: Vietnamese cassia against true cinnamon.
• Cassia buds
• Too much cinnamon? How to rescue a dish.
• Cinnamon substitutes: what to use when the jar is empty.