Cinnamon Power: Research Accelerates on Uses of This Spice/bark, Including at USDA

NEW TWIST FOR AN ANCIENT SPICE: Cinnamon (Cinnamomum Zeylanicum)
CAVEAT EMPTOR: The writer and the publisher do not claim medical and medicinal uses for any spices or items mentioned in this article; at best the research is anecdotal and based on family lore. Please consult your medical practitioner first before using cinnamon or other herbs and spices for individual health concerns. Shalom

My mom's Indian cooking and desserts console and empower me still, and I have special memories of sweet cinnamon (DALCHINI in Hindi) with BRIYANI for Sunday dinner. Briyani is a type of rice dish - either vegetarian and non-vegetarian - somewhat more stimulating to the tastebuds than Persian or Middle-Eastern dishes and Pilaf. Iranian foods use liberal amounts of cinnamon, as do most Asian recipes though in more modest doses, and ground cinnamon is often among the ingredients in "masalas" or curry powders. I am big on cinnamon because it is a food or spice that has powerful antioxidant properties. (Antioxidants, including pomegranates, greens and fruits, help delay aging by reducing "rust" or oxidation in our bodies, and this is achieved by a complex process when enzymes or hormones in these foods control or destroy free radicals - which age us).

In recent decades, I have seen my mother's weekend best cuisine and especially the spices migrate from the dining table to the laboratories all over the world. Sadly for me, my Mom passed away in 2005, yet the spices she used in daily cooking (and special occasion or festive foods) continue to inspire me to cook, as well as to explore my interests in health, healing and Ayurveda. (AYURVEDA means "science of life" and refers to a popular system of medicine in India that includes surgery, knowledge of which is actively advocated in the United States by New Mexico resident and Sanskrit scholar Dr. David Frawley). Ayurveda may be described as a system that recognizes food as one's primary medicine and energy, while encouraging enjoyment of all senses in moderation. However, some readers may be aware that physicist Nandani Shiva is controversially involved in protecting her mother and grandmothers' foods and medicine from what she labels "Bio-Piracy" and Shiva has won at least one big case against a company that tried to patent India's Basmati Rice. I am happy to share openly that my mother's and our collective foreparents' intelligent integration of food with spices such as tumeric, ginger and garlic are being recognized by chemists, medical researchers and even government agencies across the globe. One big reason for this is that we are seeing skyrocketing incidences of diabetes and inflammatory diseases across the world.

It is a stunning fact that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been studying the polymers and other derivatives from the cinnamon bark. The general direction of these studies (notably those of Richard A. Anderson and Marilyn Polansky) is to find products which will use the polyphenols and insulin imitators for Type II Diabetes control. When I searched for cinnamon in the USDA website (www.USDA.gov) I was led to 1 980 items in 0.1 seconds. Further refining my search in order to get an impression of the amount of research that is ongoing on this spice, I typed in "Cinnamon, 2008) and got 314 items in 0.15 seconds. I followed Richard A. Anderson's work through the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (popularly called ARS) and located in Beltsville, Maryland, USA. This 2008 article acknowledged that modern diets are leading to, and accelerating cases of diseases "such as athritis, obesity and type 2 diabetes." With his co-authors, Heping Cao and Joseph Urban, Anderson says that the usual drug treatment for people in poorer countries is "not feasible and alternative treatments need to be evaluated." (http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications.htm?seq_no_115=216483)

As a one-time student and convenor of Ayurveda Courses in New England (Institute of Holistic Health/Saraswati Mandiram) I absorbed information from David Frawley - who is rare among Americans for reading and researching in the original Sanskrit texts - and from my own family, travel to India and especially personal trial and error, and therefore vouch for cinnamon as an anti-oxidant and blood-sugar ameliorator. Whether used as a tea, or directly in the original form as curled bark sticks (see attached picture from the Public Domain), or even as a powder, cinnamon works to control inflammation inside one's body. So, when my rhuematism, athritis or cold symptoms rear their head, I double up on my single daily use of cinnamon for relatively quick relief (within an hour or two). In scientific language, this relief of inflammation may be put thus: "Cinnamon polyphonol [polyphenol?] extract affects immune responses by regulating anti- and proinflammatory and glucose transporter gene expression in mouse macrophages." (http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications.htm?seq_no_115=216483)

It is my conclusion that in past years most of the research used "false" cinnamon or Cassia Vera, grown widely in Indonesia and sometimes called "Chinese Cinnamon." However, the true spice that was grown in colonial British Ceylon and then became known to the west as "Korunda" is known by the scientific name "Cinnamomum Zeylanicum." My supplier, St. Johns Botanicals Inc., (in Bowie, Maryland) alerted me to the two main varieties we have here in the USA. I would have difficulty recommending C. Zeylanicum over C. Vera for those who are seeking to control blood sugar or inflammation, except to say that the true cinnamon is what I have grown up with, the sweeter variety. If used as tea, one need no sweetener, even if one is young or in fantastic health and therefore not requiring to stay away from sweeteners!

HOW TO USE CINNAMON (sticks or powder)
I have recommended making cinnamon tea from the bark alone with boiling water, to those seeking to control their blood sugar levels. I would use clean suacepans on an open flame rather than the microwave. Personally, I use my glass coffeepot with a few small sticks of cinnamon in, but without the coffee grounds - and making sure that all the parts of the coffee-maker are in proper place - to boil my tea. One could let it steep for five more minutes after the 1-2 or 3-6 cups of water has been filtered into the pot. The cooler the tea is before drinking, the more naturally sweet the cinnamon taste will be.

Some people prefer the cinnamon powder for control of chronic health conditions related to inflammation. (One friend used my advice within the past month to get relief from her asthma symptoms). The powdered form is so versatile that you will have several opportunities to add it as a before-you-eat-it seasoning on any sandwich, but I also use the powdered cinnamon to make my tea. Sometimes, I have sprinkled about one-half teaspoon of powdered cinnamon over my briyani, or brown rice and veggies.

Again, the golden rule applies here: do not overuse any product. While there is concern in some research that the water-soluble compounds from cinnamon bark extract and residue have no known side effects inside the body, the same might not be true of the oils or fats. I am reassured by the fact that less than one-percent of the content of a cinnamon bark piece comprises the oil or fat. Anderson and Polansky said as much in a 2004 article on their research, "Fat-soluble compounds may accumulate in the body if ingested over a long period. At this time, there is no data on potential effects of long-term ingestion of table cinnamon." (Rosalie Marion Bliss, "Insulin Imitators Polyphenols Found In Cinnamon Mimic Job of Hormone, " p.19, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, April 2004). Generally, however, most plant products that are safe for human consumption have few side-effects, but since companies cannot evver patent plants and bark, their scientists combine ingredients in order to create a new invention that will likely garner patents nationally or internationally.

Again the work of USDA (and ARS, including several colleagues there who have collaborated with R.A. Anderson) demonstrated that a diet including modest amounts of table cinnamon, through one 40-day study, notably improved metabolism of fats and sugars among the participants. No other spice or plants has come close to the power of cinnamon to metabolize sugar. In Beltsville, Maryland, Anderson and his collaborators showed that MHCP (methylhydroxychalcone polymer) - the chemical derivative of cinnamon - may effect a twenty-fold improvement in the metabolism of fats and sugars. (Photo of Anderson and Polansky by Peggy Greb. Rosalie Marion Bliss, "Insulin Imitators Polyphenols Found in Cinnamon Mimic Job of Hormone,"p.19, Agricultural Research, April 2004).