Updated 5 January 2024
Other botanical names
- Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Laurus cinnamomum
Common names
- Ceylon Cinnamon, Sri Lanka Cinnamon
Common origins
- Tropical regions, Sri Lanka
Botanical classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Division: Magnoliophyta
- Class: Magnoliopsida
- Order: Laurales
- Family: Lauraceae
- Genus: Cinnamomum
Components
- Starch
- Polycyclic diterpenes
- Procyanidolic oligomers
- Tannins
- Essential oils
Parts used
- Bark
Organoleptic properties
- Aroma: slightly aromatic
- Taste: Aromatic, spicy, warm, sweet, vanilla-like
Properties
Internal use- General stimulant, especially for the circulatory, cardiac and respiratory systems.
- Immune system stimulant
- Stomachic
- Antiseptic
- Antiputrid
- Vermifuge
- Hypoglycaemic, helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels, promotes weight loss
- Emmenagogue
- Haemostatic
- Antioxidant
- Mild aphrodisiac
- Neuroprotective
- Antidepressant, euphoric
- Antiseptic
- Anti-parasitic
- Antioxidant
Indications
Internal use
- Asthenia
- Fatigue
- Influenza, flu-like aches and pains
- Colds
- Ear infections
- Bronchopulmonary infections
- Gastric atony
- Slow digestion
- Nausea
- Flatulence
- Prevention of stomach ulcers
- Helps to eliminate Helicobacter pylori
- Gastritis
- Intestinal infections and inflammations
- Diarrhoea
- Gastroenteritis
- Infectious enterocolitis
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Crohn's disease
- Amebiasis
- Intestinal parasites
- Genital and urinary tract infections
- Delayed menstruation
- Diabetes (adjuvant)
- Postprandial hyperglycaemia
- Effect on glycated haemoglobin
- Prevention of metabolic disorders
- Impotence
- Prevention of neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) and stress-related ageing
- Depression
- Cancer prevention
External use
Precautions / Contraindications
- Dermocaustic (EO)
- Avoid use by pregnant women and young children (especially EO).
- Coumarin affects blood clotting and is hepatotoxic and carcinogenic at high doses.
How to use / Current dose
Internal use
- As infusion: maximum 3 cups per day
- In powder or capsules
- As a tincture or hydroalcoholic extract
- As mulled wine
- As an essential oil
- It is often mixed with other spices or plants.
External use
- In infusion (injection): for leucorrhoea, metrorrhagia
- As essential oil
Additional information
Habitat and botanical description
Ceylon cinnamon is a tree that can grow between 10 and 15 metres tall. Its shiny, leathery, oblong (7 to 18 cm long), triple-veined, glossy green leaves are aromatic when crumpled. Its greenish flowers have a rather unpleasant odour. The fruit of the cinnamon tree is a purple, club-shaped berry (1 cm).
The cinnamon tree grows in tropical and subtropical regions on light soils. It does not tolerate cold and can sometimes become invasive in certain regions.
Harvest time
The bark is harvested from the branches during the rainy season, at least six or seven years after the cinnamon tree is planted.
Mythology / History / Anecdotes and traditional virtues
Etymologically, the name 'cinnamon' comes from the Latin 'canna', meaning 'reed, pipe', in reference to the shape of the dried bark sticks.
Cinnamon has been used for thousands of years as a spice and for its tonic and anti-infective properties in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. It was later introduced to Europe via the Silk Road.
Cinnamon is also mentioned in the Bible as part of the 'holy balm'. Since then it has been a 'must have' and, according to the Taoists, the key to immortality.