Cinnamon
Encyclopedia
Cinnamon is a spice
obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum
that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. Cinnamon trees are native to South East Asia, and its origin was a mystery to Europeans until the sixteenth century.
and Phoenician through the Greek kinnámōmon.
In India, where it is cultivated in the hill ranges of Kerala, it is called "karuvapatta" or "dalchini". In Indonesia, where it is cultivated in Java and Sumatra, it is called kayu manis ("sweet wood") and sometimes cassia vera, the "real" cassia. In Sri Lanka, in the original Sinhala, cinnamon is known as kurundu (කුරුඳු), recorded in English
in the 17th century as Korunda. In Arabic, it is called qerfa (قرفة). In Swahili it is called "mdalasini". In several European languages, the word for cinnamon comes from the Latin word cannella, a diminutive of canna, "cane". In Persian
it is called "dar-chin" meaning the Chinese tree(dar=tree, chin=China) (دارچین).
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Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity. It was imported to Egypt
as early as 2000 BC, but those who report that it had come from China confuse it with cassia.
The Hebrew Bible
makes specific mention of the spice many times: first when Moses
is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon (Hebrew
: קִנָּמוֹן, qinnāmôn) and cassia in the holy anointing oil
; in Proverbs
where the lover's bed is perfumed with myrrh
, aloes
, and cinnamon; and in Song of Solomon
, a song describing the beauty of his beloved, cinnamon scents her garments like the smell of Lebanon. Cinnamon was a component of the Ketoret
which is used when referring to the consecrated incense
described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud
. It was offered on the specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle
was located in the First
and Second
Jerusalem Temples. The ketoret was an important component of the Temple service in Jerusalem.
It was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a god: a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of Apollo
at Miletus
. Though its source was kept mysterious in the Mediterranean world for centuries by the middlemen who handled the spice trade
, to protect their monopoly as suppliers, cinnamon is native to Malabar Coast
of India, Sri Lanka
, Burma and Bangladesh
. It is also alluded to by Herodotus
and other classical writers. It was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome
, but the Emperor Nero
is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's supply at the funeral for his wife Poppaea Sabina
in AD
65.
Before the foundation of Cairo
, Alexandria
was the Mediterranean shipping port of cinnamon. Europeans who knew the Latin writers who were quoting Herodotus knew that cinnamon came up the Red Sea
to the trading ports of Egypt, but whether from Ethiopia
or not was less than clear. When the Sieur de Joinville accompanied his king to Egypt on crusade in 1248, he reported what he had been told—and believed—that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the source of the Nile out at the edge of the world. Through the Middle Ages
, the source of cinnamon was a mystery to the Western world. Marco Polo
avoided precision on this score. In Herodotus and other authors, Arabia was the source of cinnamon: giant Cinnamon bird
s collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew and used them to construct their nests; the Arabs employed a trick to obtain the sticks. This story was current as late as 1310 in Byzantium
, although in the first century, Pliny the Elder
had written that the traders had made this up in order to charge more. The first mention of the spice growing in Sri Lanka was in Zakariya al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad ("Monument of Places and History of God's Bondsmen") in about 1270. This was followed shortly thereafter by John of Montecorvino
, in a letter of about 1292.
Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon (known in Indonesia as kayu manis- literally "sweet wood") on a "cinnamon route" directly from the Moluccas to East Africa, where local traders then carried it north to the Roman market. See also Rhapta
.
Arab traders brought the spice via overland trade routes to Alexandria in Egypt, where it was bought by Venetian
traders from Italy who held a monopoly
on the spice trade in Europe. The disruption of this trade by the rise of other Mediterranean powers, such as the Mamluk Sultans
and the Ottoman Empire
, was one of many factors that led Europeans to search more widely for other routes to Asia.
Portuguese traders finally landed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka
) at the beginning of the sixteenth century and restructured the traditional production and management of cinnamon by the Sinhalese, who later held the monopoly for cinnamon in Ceylon. The Portuguese established a fort on the island in 1518 and protected their own monopoly for over a hundred years.
Dutch traders finally dislodged the Portuguese by allying with the inland Kingdom of Kandy
. They established a trading post in 1638, took control of the factories by 1640, and expelled all remaining Portuguese by 1658. "The shores of the island are full of it", a Dutch captain reported, "and it is the best in all the Orient: when one is downwind of the island, one can still smell cinnamon eight leagues
out to sea." (Braudel 1984, p. 215)
The Dutch East India Company
continued to overhaul the methods of harvesting in the wild and eventually began to cultivate its own trees.
In 1767, Lord Brown of East India Company established Anjarakkandy Cinnamon Estate near Anjarakkandy
in Cannanore (now Kannur
) district of Kerala
, and this estate became Asia's largest cinnamon estate.
The British took control of the island from the Dutch in 1796. However, the importance of the monopoly of Ceylon was already declining, as cultivation of the cinnamon tree spread to other areas, the more common cassia bark
became more acceptable to consumers, and coffee
, tea
, sugar
, and chocolate
began to outstrip the popularity of traditional spices.
Cinnamon is harvested by growing the tree for two years then coppicing
it. The next year, about a dozen shoots will form from the roots.
The branches harvested this way are processed by scraping off the outer bark, then beating the branch evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark. The inner bark is then prised out in long rolls. Only the thin (0.5 mm (0.0196850393700787 in)) inner bark is used; the outer, woody portion is discarded, leaving metre-long cinnamon strips that curl into rolls ("quills") on drying. Once dry, the bark is cut into 5 centimetre lengths for sale.
The bark must be processed immediately after harvesting while still wet. Once processed, the bark will dry completely in four to six hours, provided that it is in a well-ventilated and relatively warm environment. A less than ideal drying environment encourages the proliferation of pests in the bark, which may then require treatment by fumigation. Bark treated this way is not considered to be of the same premium quality as untreated bark.
Cinnamon has been cultivated from time immemorial in Sri Lanka
, and the tree is also grown commercially at Kerala
in southern India
, Bangladesh
, Java, Sumatra
, the West Indies, Brazil
, Vietnam
, Madagascar
, Zanzibar
, and Egypt
. Sri Lanka cinnamon
has a very thin, smooth bark with a light-yellowish brown color and a highly fragrant aroma. In recent years in Sri Lanka, mechanical devices have been developed to ensure premium quality and worker safety and health, following considerable research by the Universities in that country led by the University of Ruhuna
.
According to the International Herald Tribune
, in 2006 Sri Lanka produced 90% of the world's cinnamon, followed by China, India, and Vietnam. According to the FAO
, Indonesia produces 40% of the world's Cassia genus of cinnamon.
The Sri Lankan grading system divides the cinnamon quills into four groups:
These groups are further divided into specific grades. For example, Mexican is divided into M00 000 special, M000000, and M0000, depending on quill diameter and number of quills per kg.
Any pieces of bark less than 106 mm (4.2 in) long are categorized as quillings. Featherings are the inner bark of twigs and twisted shoots. Chips are trimmings of quills, outer and inner bark that cannot be separated, or the bark of small twigs.
There are several different cultivars of Cinnamomum verum based on the taste of bark:
Ceylon cinnamon, using only the thin inner bark, has a finer, less dense, and more crumbly texture, and is considered to be less strong than cassia. Cassia has a much stronger (somewhat harsher) flavour than Ceylon cinnamon, is generally a medium to light reddish brown, hard and woody in texture, and thicker (2 millimetre thick), as all of the layers of bark are used.
Due to the presence of a moderately toxic component called coumarin
, European health agencies have recently warned against consuming large amounts of cassia. This is contained in much lower dosages in Cinnamomum burmannii
due to its low essential oil content. Coumarin is known to cause liver and kidney damage in high concentrations. Ceylon cinnamon has negligible amounts of coumarin.
The barks, when whole, are easily distinguished, and their microscopic characteristics are also quite distinct. Ceylon cinnamon sticks (or quills) have many thin layers and can easily be made into powder using a coffee or spice grinder, whereas cassia sticks are much harder. Indonesian cinnamon is often sold in neat quills made up of one thick layer, capable of damaging a spice or coffee grinder. Saigon cinnamon and Chinese cinnamon are always sold as broken pieces of thick bark, as the bark is not supple enough to be rolled into quills. The powdered bark is harder to distinguish, but if it is treated with tincture of iodine
(a test for starch), little effect is visible with pure Ceylon cinnamon, but when Chinese cinnamon is present, a deep-blue tint is produced.
Cinnamon is also sometimes confused with Malabathrum
(Cinnamomum tamala).
that makes up 0.5% to 1% of its composition. This oil is prepared by roughly pounding the bark, macerating
it in seawater, and then quickly distilling
the whole. It is of a golden-yellow color, with the characteristic odor of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste. The pungent taste
and scent come from cinnamic aldehyde
or cinnamaldehyde
(about 60 % of the bark oil) and, by the absorption of oxygen
as it ages, it darkens in color and develops resinous compounds. Other chemical components of the essential oil include ethyl cinnamate
, eugenol
(found mostly in the leaves), beta-caryophyllene
, linalool, and methyl chavicol .
Cinnamon bark is widely used as a spice
. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavoring material. It is used in the preparation of chocolate
, especially in Mexico
, which is the main importer of true cinnamon. It is also used in many dessert
s recipes, such as apple pie
, donut
s, and cinnamon buns as well as spicy candies, tea
, hot cocoa, and liqueur
s. True cinnamon, rather than cassia, is more suitable for use in sweet dishes. In the Middle East
, it is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb. In the United States, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereal
s, bread-based dishes, and fruit
s, especially apple
s; a cinnamon-sugar
mixture is even sold separately for such purposes. Cinnamon can also be used in pickling
. Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly. Cinnamon powder has long been an important spice in Persian cuisine, used in a variety of thick soups, drinks, and sweets. It is often mixed with rosewater
or other spices to make a cinnamon-based curry powder for stews or just sprinkled on sweet treats (most notably Shole-zard, Persian شله زرد). It is also used in sambar powder or BisiBelebath powder in Karnataka
, which gives it a rich aroma and tastes unique. It is also used in Turkish cuisine
for both sweet and savory dishes.
Cinnamon has been proposed for use as an insect repellent
, although it remains untested. Cinnamon leaf oil has been found to be very effective in killing mosquito larvae. The compounds cinnamaldehyde
, cinnamyl acetate, eugenol
, and anethole
, that are contained in cinnamon leaf oil, were found to have the highest effectiveness against mosquito larvae.
An oil known as eugenol that comes from the leaves of the cinnamon bush has been shown to have antiviral properties in vitro, specifically against both the HSV-1 and HSV-2 (Oral and Genital Herpes) viruses according to a study published in the journal, Phytotherapy Research
.
A study conducted in 2007 and published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
suggests that specific plant terpenoids contained within cinnamon have potent antiviral properties.
Pharmacological experiments suggest that the cinnamon-derived dietary factor
cinnamic aldehyde (cinnamaldehyde
) activates the Nrf2-dependent antioxidant
response in human epithelial colon
cells and may therefore represent an experimental chemopreventive dietary factor targeting colorectal carcinogenesis
. Recent research documents anti-melanoma activity of cinnamic aldehyde observed in cell culture and a mouse model of human melanoma.
Cinnamon bark, a component of the traditional Japanese medicine Mao-to, has been shown in a 2008 study published in the Journal of General Virology
to have an antiviral therapeutic effect.
A 2011 study isolated a substance (CEppt) in the cinnamon plant which inhibits development of Alzheimer's
in mice. CEppt, an extract of cinnamon bark, seems to treat a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum
Cinnamomum
Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of Cinnamomum have aromatic oils in their leaves and bark. The genus contains over 300 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of North America, Central America,...
that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. Cinnamon trees are native to South East Asia, and its origin was a mystery to Europeans until the sixteenth century.
Nomenclature and taxonomy
The name cinnamon comes from HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and Phoenician through the Greek kinnámōmon.
In India, where it is cultivated in the hill ranges of Kerala, it is called "karuvapatta" or "dalchini". In Indonesia, where it is cultivated in Java and Sumatra, it is called kayu manis ("sweet wood") and sometimes cassia vera, the "real" cassia. In Sri Lanka, in the original Sinhala, cinnamon is known as kurundu (කුරුඳු), recorded in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in the 17th century as Korunda. In Arabic, it is called qerfa (قرفة). In Swahili it is called "mdalasini". In several European languages, the word for cinnamon comes from the Latin word cannella, a diminutive of canna, "cane". In Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
it is called "dar-chin" meaning the Chinese tree(dar=tree, chin=China) (دارچین).
History
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as early as 2000 BC, but those who report that it had come from China confuse it with cassia.
The Hebrew Bible
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
makes specific mention of the spice many times: first when Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon (Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: קִנָּמוֹן, qinnāmôn) and cassia in the holy anointing oil
Holy anointing oil
The holy anointing oil , formed an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood and the high priest as well as in the consecration of the articles of the tabernacle and subsequent temples in Jerusalem...
; in Proverbs
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs , commonly referred to simply as Proverbs, is a book of the Hebrew Bible.The original Hebrew title of the book of Proverbs is "Míshlê Shlomoh" . When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different forms. In the Greek Septuagint the title became "paroimai paroimiae"...
where the lover's bed is perfumed with myrrh
Myrrh
Myrrh is the aromatic oleoresin of a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora, which grow in dry, stony soil. An oleoresin is a natural blend of an essential oil and a resin. Myrrh resin is a natural gum....
, aloes
Agarwood
Agarwood or oodh is a dark resinous heartwood that forms in Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees when they become infected with a type of mold...
, and cinnamon; and in Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon
The Song of Songs of Solomon, commonly referred to as Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, is a book of the Hebrew Bible—one of the megillot —found in the last section of the Tanakh, known as the Ketuvim...
, a song describing the beauty of his beloved, cinnamon scents her garments like the smell of Lebanon. Cinnamon was a component of the Ketoret
Ketoret
The use of incense in Judaism was related to perfumed offerings on the altar of incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temple period, and was an important component of priestly liturgy in the Temple in Jerusalem....
which is used when referring to the consecrated incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
. It was offered on the specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle
Tabernacle
The Tabernacle , according to the Hebrew Torah/Old Testament, was the portable dwelling place for the divine presence from the time of the Exodus from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan. Built to specifications revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, it accompanied the Israelites...
was located in the First
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
and Second
Second Temple period
The Second Temple period , in Jewish history, is the period between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. It ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Temple's destruction....
Jerusalem Temples. The ketoret was an important component of the Temple service in Jerusalem.
It was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a god: a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
at Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
. Though its source was kept mysterious in the Mediterranean world for centuries by the middlemen who handled the spice trade
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
, to protect their monopoly as suppliers, cinnamon is native to Malabar Coast
Malabar Coast
The Malabar Coast is a long and narrow coastline on the south-western shore line of the mainland Indian subcontinent. Geographically, it comprises the wettest regions of southern India, as the Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden monsoon rains, especially on their westward-facing mountain...
of India, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Burma and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. It is also alluded to by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
and other classical writers. It was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, but the Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's supply at the funeral for his wife Poppaea Sabina
Poppaea Sabina
Poppaea Sabina and sometimes referred to as Poppaea Sabina the Younger to differentiate her from her mother of the same name, was a Roman Empress as the second wife of the Emperor Nero. Prior to this she was the wife of the future Emperor Otho...
in AD
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
65.
Before the foundation of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
was the Mediterranean shipping port of cinnamon. Europeans who knew the Latin writers who were quoting Herodotus knew that cinnamon came up the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
to the trading ports of Egypt, but whether from Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
or not was less than clear. When the Sieur de Joinville accompanied his king to Egypt on crusade in 1248, he reported what he had been told—and believed—that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the source of the Nile out at the edge of the world. Through the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the source of cinnamon was a mystery to the Western world. Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
avoided precision on this score. In Herodotus and other authors, Arabia was the source of cinnamon: giant Cinnamon bird
Cinnamon bird
The cinnamon bird, also known as Cinnamologus, Cinomolgus, Cynnamolgus or Cinnibird is a mythical creature described in various bestiaries as a giant bird that collected cinnamon to build its nests.- According to Herodotus :...
s collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew and used them to construct their nests; the Arabs employed a trick to obtain the sticks. This story was current as late as 1310 in Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
, although in the first century, Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
had written that the traders had made this up in order to charge more. The first mention of the spice growing in Sri Lanka was in Zakariya al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad ("Monument of Places and History of God's Bondsmen") in about 1270. This was followed shortly thereafter by John of Montecorvino
John of Montecorvino
John of Montecorvino or Giovanni da Montecorvino in Italian was an Italian Franciscan missionary, traveler and statesman, founder of the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China, and archbishop of Peking, and Latin Patriarch of the Orient.-Biography:John was born at Montecorvino...
, in a letter of about 1292.
Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon (known in Indonesia as kayu manis- literally "sweet wood") on a "cinnamon route" directly from the Moluccas to East Africa, where local traders then carried it north to the Roman market. See also Rhapta
Rhapta
Rhapta was a marketplace on the coast of eastern Africa, which first rose to prominence in the 1st century CE. Its location has not yet been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites....
.
Arab traders brought the spice via overland trade routes to Alexandria in Egypt, where it was bought by Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
traders from Italy who held a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on the spice trade in Europe. The disruption of this trade by the rise of other Mediterranean powers, such as the Mamluk Sultans
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)
The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt was the final independent Egyptian state prior to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1805. It lasted from the overthrow of the Ayyubid Dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. The sultanate's ruling caste was composed of Mamluks, Arabised...
and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, was one of many factors that led Europeans to search more widely for other routes to Asia.
Portuguese traders finally landed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) at the beginning of the sixteenth century and restructured the traditional production and management of cinnamon by the Sinhalese, who later held the monopoly for cinnamon in Ceylon. The Portuguese established a fort on the island in 1518 and protected their own monopoly for over a hundred years.
Dutch traders finally dislodged the Portuguese by allying with the inland Kingdom of Kandy
Kingdom of Kandy
Kingdom of Kandy was an important independent monarchy of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century...
. They established a trading post in 1638, took control of the factories by 1640, and expelled all remaining Portuguese by 1658. "The shores of the island are full of it", a Dutch captain reported, "and it is the best in all the Orient: when one is downwind of the island, one can still smell cinnamon eight leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
out to sea." (Braudel 1984, p. 215)
The Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
continued to overhaul the methods of harvesting in the wild and eventually began to cultivate its own trees.
In 1767, Lord Brown of East India Company established Anjarakkandy Cinnamon Estate near Anjarakkandy
Anjarakkandy
Anjarakandy is the name of a village Gram panchayath and a census town in Kannur taluk. Anjrakandy river is flowing through Anjarakandy Kannur taluk in Kannur District, Kerala state South India.-History:...
in Cannanore (now Kannur
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
) district of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, and this estate became Asia's largest cinnamon estate.
The British took control of the island from the Dutch in 1796. However, the importance of the monopoly of Ceylon was already declining, as cultivation of the cinnamon tree spread to other areas, the more common cassia bark
Bark
Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside of the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner...
became more acceptable to consumers, and coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, and chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
began to outstrip the popularity of traditional spices.
Cultivation
Coppicing
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level...
it. The next year, about a dozen shoots will form from the roots.
The branches harvested this way are processed by scraping off the outer bark, then beating the branch evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark. The inner bark is then prised out in long rolls. Only the thin (0.5 mm (0.0196850393700787 in)) inner bark is used; the outer, woody portion is discarded, leaving metre-long cinnamon strips that curl into rolls ("quills") on drying. Once dry, the bark is cut into 5 centimetre lengths for sale.
The bark must be processed immediately after harvesting while still wet. Once processed, the bark will dry completely in four to six hours, provided that it is in a well-ventilated and relatively warm environment. A less than ideal drying environment encourages the proliferation of pests in the bark, which may then require treatment by fumigation. Bark treated this way is not considered to be of the same premium quality as untreated bark.
Cinnamon has been cultivated from time immemorial in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, and the tree is also grown commercially at Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
in southern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Java, Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, the West Indies, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Sri Lanka cinnamon
Cinnamomum verum
Cinnamomum verum, called "true cinnamon", Ceylon cinnamon or Sri Lanka cinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka...
has a very thin, smooth bark with a light-yellowish brown color and a highly fragrant aroma. In recent years in Sri Lanka, mechanical devices have been developed to ensure premium quality and worker safety and health, following considerable research by the Universities in that country led by the University of Ruhuna
University of Ruhuna
The University of Ruhuna is a university in Matara, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1978 and is organized in seven faculties. The faculties of Engineering and Medicine are in Galle.-History:...
.
According to the International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, in 2006 Sri Lanka produced 90% of the world's cinnamon, followed by China, India, and Vietnam. According to the FAO
Fão
Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....
, Indonesia produces 40% of the world's Cassia genus of cinnamon.
The Sri Lankan grading system divides the cinnamon quills into four groups:
- Alba, less than 6 mm (0.236220472440945 in) in diameter
- Continental, less than 16 mm (0.62992125984252 in) in diameter
- Mexican, less than 19 mm (0.748031496062992 in) in diameter
- HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, less than 32 mm (1.3 in) in diameter
These groups are further divided into specific grades. For example, Mexican is divided into M00 000 special, M000000, and M0000, depending on quill diameter and number of quills per kg.
Any pieces of bark less than 106 mm (4.2 in) long are categorized as quillings. Featherings are the inner bark of twigs and twisted shoots. Chips are trimmings of quills, outer and inner bark that cannot be separated, or the bark of small twigs.
Species
A number of species are often sold as cinnamon:- Cinnamomum verumCinnamomum verumCinnamomum verum, called "true cinnamon", Ceylon cinnamon or Sri Lanka cinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka...
("True cinnamon", Sri Lanka cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon) - C. burmanniiCinnamomum burmanniiCinnamomum burmannii, also known as Indonesian Cinnamon, Padang Cassia, or Korintje, is one of several plants in the genus Cinnamomum whose bark are sold as the spice cinnamon. The spice is the least expensive of the three common forms of cinnamon as it has the lowest essential oil content...
(Korintje or Indonesian cinnamon) - C. loureiroi (Saigon cinnamon or Vietnamese cinnamon)
- C. aromaticum (Cassia or Chinese cinnamon)
There are several different cultivars of Cinnamomum verum based on the taste of bark:
- Type 1 Sinhala: Pani Kurundu (පැණි කුරුඳු), Pat Kurundu (පත් කුරුඳු) or Mapat Kurundu (මාපත් කුරුඳු)
- Type 2 Sinhala: Naga Kurundu (නාග කුරුඳු)
- Type 3 Sinhala: Pani Miris Kurundu (පැණි මිරිස් කුරුඳු)
- Type 4 Sinhala: Weli Kurundu (වැලි කුරුඳු)
- Type 5 Sinhala: Sewala Kurundu (සෙවල කුරුඳු)
- Type 6 Sinhala: Kahata Kurundu (කහට කුරුඳු)
- Type 7 Sinhala: Pieris Kurundu (පීරිස් කුරුඳු)
Ceylon cinnamon, using only the thin inner bark, has a finer, less dense, and more crumbly texture, and is considered to be less strong than cassia. Cassia has a much stronger (somewhat harsher) flavour than Ceylon cinnamon, is generally a medium to light reddish brown, hard and woody in texture, and thicker (2 millimetre thick), as all of the layers of bark are used.
Due to the presence of a moderately toxic component called coumarin
Coumarin
Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...
, European health agencies have recently warned against consuming large amounts of cassia. This is contained in much lower dosages in Cinnamomum burmannii
Cinnamomum burmannii
Cinnamomum burmannii, also known as Indonesian Cinnamon, Padang Cassia, or Korintje, is one of several plants in the genus Cinnamomum whose bark are sold as the spice cinnamon. The spice is the least expensive of the three common forms of cinnamon as it has the lowest essential oil content...
due to its low essential oil content. Coumarin is known to cause liver and kidney damage in high concentrations. Ceylon cinnamon has negligible amounts of coumarin.
The barks, when whole, are easily distinguished, and their microscopic characteristics are also quite distinct. Ceylon cinnamon sticks (or quills) have many thin layers and can easily be made into powder using a coffee or spice grinder, whereas cassia sticks are much harder. Indonesian cinnamon is often sold in neat quills made up of one thick layer, capable of damaging a spice or coffee grinder. Saigon cinnamon and Chinese cinnamon are always sold as broken pieces of thick bark, as the bark is not supple enough to be rolled into quills. The powdered bark is harder to distinguish, but if it is treated with tincture of iodine
Tincture of iodine
Tincture of iodine is a disinfectant, usually 2–7% elemental iodine, along with potassium iodide or sodium iodide, dissolved in a mixture of ethanol and water. As in the case of Lugol's iodine, the role of iodide and water in the solution is to increase the solubility of the elemental iodine, by...
(a test for starch), little effect is visible with pure Ceylon cinnamon, but when Chinese cinnamon is present, a deep-blue tint is produced.
Cinnamon is also sometimes confused with Malabathrum
Malabathrum
Malabathrum, also known as Malobathrum or Malabar leaf, is the name used in classical and medieval texts for the leaf of the plant Cinnamomum tamala . In ancient Greece and Rome, the leaves were used to prepare a fragrant oil, called Oleum Malabathri, and were therefore valuable...
(Cinnamomum tamala).
Flavor, aroma and taste
Its flavor is due to an aromatic essential oilEssential oil
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove...
that makes up 0.5% to 1% of its composition. This oil is prepared by roughly pounding the bark, macerating
Macerating
In food preparation, maceration is softening or breaking into pieces using a liquid.Raw, dried or preserved fruit or vegetables are soaked in a liquid to soften the food or absorb the flavor of the liquid into the food. In the case of fresh fruit, they are often just sprinkled with sugar, then left...
it in seawater, and then quickly distilling
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
the whole. It is of a golden-yellow color, with the characteristic odor of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste. The pungent taste
Taste
Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
and scent come from cinnamic aldehyde
Aldehyde
An aldehyde is an organic compound containing a formyl group. This functional group, with the structure R-CHO, consists of a carbonyl center bonded to hydrogen and an R group....
or cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde is the organic compound that gives cinnamon its flavor and odor. This pale yellow viscous liquid occurs naturally in the bark of cinnamon trees and other species of the genus Cinnamomum...
(about 60 % of the bark oil) and, by the absorption of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
as it ages, it darkens in color and develops resinous compounds. Other chemical components of the essential oil include ethyl cinnamate
Ethyl cinnamate
Ethyl cinnamate is the ester of cinnamic acid and ethanol. It is present in the essential oil of cinnamon. Pure ethyl cinnamate has a "fruity and balsamic odor, reminiscent of cinnamon with an amber note"....
, eugenol
Eugenol
Eugenol is a phenylpropene, an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol. Eugenol is a member of the phenylpropanoids class of chemical compounds. It is a clear to pale yellow oily liquid extracted from certain essential oils especially from clove oil, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil and bay leaf. It is slightly...
(found mostly in the leaves), beta-caryophyllene
Caryophyllene
Caryophyllene , or -β-caryophyllene, is a natural bicyclic sesquiterpene that is a constituent of many essential oils, especially clove oil, the oil from the stems and flowers of Syzygium aromaticum , the essential oil of hemp Cannabis sativa, rosemary Rosmarinus oficinalis, and hops...
, linalool, and methyl chavicol .
Uses
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavoring material. It is used in the preparation of chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
, especially in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, which is the main importer of true cinnamon. It is also used in many dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
s recipes, such as apple pie
Apple pie
An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. It is sometimes served with whipped cream or ice cream on top...
, donut
DONUT
DONUT was an experiment at Fermilab dedicated to the search for tau neutrino interactions. Even though the detector operated only during a few months in the summer of 1997, it was largely successful. By detecting the tau neutrino, it confirmed the existence of the last lepton predicted by the...
s, and cinnamon buns as well as spicy candies, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
, hot cocoa, and liqueur
Liqueur
A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...
s. True cinnamon, rather than cassia, is more suitable for use in sweet dishes. In the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, it is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb. In the United States, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
s, bread-based dishes, and fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s, especially apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s; a cinnamon-sugar
Cinnamon sugar
Cinnamon sugar is a mixture of ground cinnamon and granulated sugar used as a spice for desserts. While premixed versions are available commercially, it is simple to prepare at home, and more economical.-Proportions:...
mixture is even sold separately for such purposes. Cinnamon can also be used in pickling
Pickling
Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar . The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste...
. Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly. Cinnamon powder has long been an important spice in Persian cuisine, used in a variety of thick soups, drinks, and sweets. It is often mixed with rosewater
Rosewater
Rose water or rose syrup is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals. Rose water, itself a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume, is used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes throughout Europe and...
or other spices to make a cinnamon-based curry powder for stews or just sprinkled on sweet treats (most notably Shole-zard, Persian شله زرد). It is also used in sambar powder or BisiBelebath powder in Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
, which gives it a rich aroma and tastes unique. It is also used in Turkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including that of western Europe...
for both sweet and savory dishes.
Cinnamon has been proposed for use as an insect repellent
Insect repellent
An insect repellent is a substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces which discourages insects from landing or climbing on that surface. There are also insect repellent products available based on sound production, particularly ultrasound...
, although it remains untested. Cinnamon leaf oil has been found to be very effective in killing mosquito larvae. The compounds cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde is the organic compound that gives cinnamon its flavor and odor. This pale yellow viscous liquid occurs naturally in the bark of cinnamon trees and other species of the genus Cinnamomum...
, cinnamyl acetate, eugenol
Eugenol
Eugenol is a phenylpropene, an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol. Eugenol is a member of the phenylpropanoids class of chemical compounds. It is a clear to pale yellow oily liquid extracted from certain essential oils especially from clove oil, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil and bay leaf. It is slightly...
, and anethole
Anethole
Anethole is a phenylpropene, a type of aromatic compound that occurs widely in nature, in essential oils...
, that are contained in cinnamon leaf oil, were found to have the highest effectiveness against mosquito larvae.
Research
In a 2000 study published in The Indian Journal of Medical Research, it was shown that of the 69 plant species screened, 16 were effective against HIV-1 and 4 were against both HIV-1 and HIV-2. The most effective extracts against HIV-1 and HIV-2 were respectively Cinnamomum cassia (bark) and Cardiospermum helicacabum (shoot + fruit).An oil known as eugenol that comes from the leaves of the cinnamon bush has been shown to have antiviral properties in vitro, specifically against both the HSV-1 and HSV-2 (Oral and Genital Herpes) viruses according to a study published in the journal, Phytotherapy Research
Phytotherapy Research
Phytotherapy Research is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original research papers, short communications, reviews, and letters on medicinal plant research...
.
A study conducted in 2007 and published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry , is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1959 by the American Chemical Society...
suggests that specific plant terpenoids contained within cinnamon have potent antiviral properties.
Pharmacological experiments suggest that the cinnamon-derived dietary factor
Diet and cancer
Diet and cancer are associated. While it is not yet possible to provide quantitative estimates of the overall risks, it has been estimated that 35 percent of cancer deaths may be related to dietary factors. Almost all cancers are caused by environmental factors, and of these, 30–40% of cancers are...
cinnamic aldehyde (cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde is the organic compound that gives cinnamon its flavor and odor. This pale yellow viscous liquid occurs naturally in the bark of cinnamon trees and other species of the genus Cinnamomum...
) activates the Nrf2-dependent antioxidant
Antioxidant
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
response in human epithelial colon
Colon (anatomy)
The colon is the last part of the digestive system in most vertebrates; it extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body, and is the site in which flora-aided fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a...
cells and may therefore represent an experimental chemopreventive dietary factor targeting colorectal carcinogenesis
Carcinogenesis
Carcinogenesis or oncogenesis is literally the creation of cancer. It is a process by which normal cells are transformed into cancer cells...
. Recent research documents anti-melanoma activity of cinnamic aldehyde observed in cell culture and a mouse model of human melanoma.
Cinnamon bark, a component of the traditional Japanese medicine Mao-to, has been shown in a 2008 study published in the Journal of General Virology
Journal of General Virology
The Journal of General Virology is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research into viruses affecting animals, plants, insects, bacteria and fungi, including their molecular biology, immunology and interactions with the host. Antiviral compounds are also covered. Established in 1967, it...
to have an antiviral therapeutic effect.
A 2011 study isolated a substance (CEppt) in the cinnamon plant which inhibits development of Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
in mice. CEppt, an extract of cinnamon bark, seems to treat a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.
Nutritional information
1tbsp of ground cinnamon contains the following nutritional information according to the USDA:- Calories : 19 kcal
- Fat: 0.10 g
- Carbohydrates: 6.29 g
- Fibers: 4.1 g
- Protein: 0.31 g