The Benefits of Cinnamon

When you were a kid and you came home after a long day at school or a long day of playing with your friends, you went to the kitchen and you saw...A plate or bowl of cookies! What you did not know at that young tender age was that most mom's had a secret ingredient they put in their cookie mixes, cinnamon. Yes it was cinnamon that gave her cookies that really good taste and that is not all.

Cinnamon, Kingdom-Plantae, Division-Magnoliophyta, class-magnoliopsida, order-laurales, family-lauraceae, genus-cinnamomum, species -C. verum, all that is cinnamon. A evergreen tree from the countries of Sri Lanka and south India. It grows to about thirty-three to fifty feet. The bark is widely used as a spice due to it's distinct flavor. It's flavor come from aromatic essential oils that makes up to one percent of it's composition. The name cinnamon comes from the Greek word "Kinnamomon".

Cinnamon has been treasured from early ages, it was highly prized among ancient cultures. It was imported to Egypt from China as early as two thousand B.C., and mentioned in the old testament in the bible also. It has been regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and royalty. Cinnamon was also used on funeral pyres in Rome. In the middle ages cinnamon was a mystery to the west. Arab traders brought the spice overland to Alexandria Egypt. It was then purchased by traders from Italy who held a monopoly over the spice in Europe. The rise of the Ottoman empire was one of the factors that led Europeans to look for other routes in search of the spice which led to Asia.

Portuguese traders discovered Ceylon(Sri Lanka), at the end of the fifteenth century. Dutch traders eventually took over Ceylon and expelled the Portuguese. It was said that one could smell cinnamon eight leagues out to sea. The Dutch East India company continued to overhaul methods of harvesting in the wild, and eventually began to cultivate it's own trees. The British took control of the Island in seventeen ninety-six. By then the cultivation of the cinnamon tree had spread to other areas and the more common cassia bark became more acceptable to consumers. In two-thousand and five Indonesia produced almost forty percent of the world's cinnamon followed by China, India, and Vietnam.

All of the cinnamon sold in the US is Cassia, known as the Bastard cinnamon as it not known as the Ceylon or true cinnamon. Cinnamon bark is widely used as a spice, it is principally used as a condiment in cookery and flavoring material. It is also used in the preparation of some deserts, chocolate, spicy candies, tea, cocoa, and liqueurs. In the middle east it is used in dishes of chicken and lamb. In the US it is often used with sugar to flavor cereals, bread-based dishes, and fruits. Cinnamon can also be used in pickling. Medical uses it was once thought of as a cure for colds, it has also been used as treatment for diarrhea and other digestive system problems. Cinnamon is high in antioxidant activity. The essential oil of cinnamon also has anti-microbial properties which aid in the preservation of some foods. There have been some studies with the cassia cinnamon for the treatment of people with type 2 diabetes, but the studies have been inconclusive to this point.It has also been used as a remedy for toothaches and to treat bad breath.

The study of cinnamon for type 2 diabetes is that it may significantly help people improve their ability to respond to insulin. This normalizes their blood sugar levels. Cinnamon may help stimulate insulin receptors, and also inhibits an enzyme that inactivates them. Cinnamon smell boosts brain activity according to Dr. P. Zoladz in 2004 at the Association for Chemoreception Sciences in Sarasota FL.

*Note: all historical facts herein are taken from materials on wikipedia and monumentalmassage and copywrite belongs solely to them
they are used as historical facts only and I claim no rights to them.

Sources:

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon
http://www.monumentalmassage.com/articles/benefits_of_cinnamon.html