Cinnamon Powder

Cinnamon is one of the world’s oldest spices: it is known to have been used by the Egyptians in their embalming recipes, as well as having a long history in Ayurvedic medicine. Its name is derived from a Greek work meaning ‘sweet wood’, and this aromatic bark also has a long history of use in flavouring food and scenting perfumes and incense. Cinnamon is also alleged to have been one of the highly secret ingredients in the 1886 original Coca Cola recipe, when it was first formulated by an American pharmacist as a headache remedy!

Cinnamon is largely produced in Sri Lanka and Indonesia from the bark of a tropical evergreen plant that has two main varieties: Cinnamomum zeylanicum (‘true’ cinnamon) and Cinnamon cassia (cheaper, coarser and less fragrant cassia). Its production is a labour-intensive process that involves very skilled cinnamon peelers who carefully peel off the inner bark of the cinnamomum tree so that it curls into rolls that are known as ‘quills’. These are then dried on coir rope racks in the shade. Cinnamon bark is harvested twice a year, immediately after the rainy season when the humidity makes the bark more easy to peel.

Cinnamon is not just used to spice up donuts, cereals and curries: it is also as important ingredient in many a medicinal potion and unguent. Almost every part of the cinnamon tree has a different medicinal use, and oils rich in different chemical compounds can be extracted from the bark, leaves and root bark. These are full of bioactive substances like cinnamaldehyde and polyphenols that give it its anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antibacterial, anti-tumour, cardiovascular, cholesterol-lowering, immunomodulatory, larvicidal, and antioxidant properties. Cinnamon has also proven particularly effective in the treatment of diabetes, because it can improve glycaemic control.