Cinnamon is one of the most treasured ingredients and is used for beverage flavouring, as a medicine and an embalming agent
Fragrant cinnamon spice is one of the highly prized spices that has been in use since biblical times for its medicinal and culinary properties. This delightfully exotic, sweet-flavoured spice stick is traditionally obtained from the outer brown bark of cinnamomum trees, which when dried, rolls into a tubular form known commercially as “quill.”
Cinnamon is the inner bark of cinnamon trees.
It is a spice which can be used on savoury or sweet foods.
Cinnamon is one of the oldest spices known. It was used in ancient Egypt not only as a beverage flavouring and medicine, but also as an embalming agent. It was so highly treasured that it was considered more precious than gold.
Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly.
There are four varieties of cinnamon. The most popular being Ceylon cinnamon and Cassia cinnamon. The varieties differ in texture, color and slight flavor differences.
In Chinese medicine cinnamon has been used to treat colds, flatulence, nausea, diarrhea and painful menstrual cramps.
Cinnamon has also been used in Ayurveda to treat diabetes and to improve digestion.
Additional studies have been done on the health benefits of cinnamon. Some have shown that cinnamon regulates blood sugar, smelling cinnamons stimulates brain activity, it is a natural food preservative, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic and anti-inflammatory.
Cinnamon contains manganese, dietary fiber, calcium, iron, and zinc.
Cinnamon was used on funeral pyres in Ancient Rome. In 65 AD, Nero burned a year’s supply of cinnamon at his second wife Poppaea Sabina’s funeral in order to show the depth of his grief.
In the Middle Ages, cinnamon was only affordable by the wealthy elite of society. A person’s social rank could be determined by the number of spices they could afford.