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Cinnamon – Spice with medicinal properties, fragrance, sweet & warm taste
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Monday, 27 May, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Pooja Sawant
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fiogf49gjkf0d • Cinnamon was once more valuable than gold and has been associated with ancient rituals of sacrifice or pleasure;
• Although available throughout the year, the fragrant, sweet and warm taste of cinnamon is a perfect spice to use during the winter months; and
• Cinnamon has a long history both as a spice and as a medicine. It is the brown bark of the cinnamon tree, which is available in its dried tubular form known as a quill or as ground powder.
Origin and Distribution
Cinnamomum verum is mostly cultivated in Sri Lanka, Malagasy Republic and Seychelles. It has originated in the central hills of Sri Lanka. In India, it is grown in one or two locations in Kerala. Cinnamon is a hardy plant and is cultivated in Sri Lanka under varying conditions ranging from semi-dried to wet zone conditions.
It is the dried inner stem bark of Cinnamomum Verum tree. This bushy evergreen tree is about 10-15 m tall, belonging to the family Lauraceae. It is widely grown in Kerala and other tropical regions of the world including Sri Lanka. The bark is widely used as a spice.
The leaves are ovate-oblong in shape, 7-18 cm long. They are leathery and shining green on upper surface when mature. The flowers have a greenish colour and a rather disagreeable odour. The fruit is a dark purple-seeded berry containing a single seed.
The spice is light brown in colour and has a delicately fragrant aroma and warm, sweet flavour. It is lighter in colour and milder in flavour than the other species. Cinnamon is a hardy plant and cultivated under varying conditions, ranging from semi-dried to wet zone conditions.
It prefers shelter and moderate rainfall. The ideal temperature for growing cinnamon is between 20-30 degree Celsius and rainfall between 1,250 to 2,500 mm. They are cultivated as low bushes to ease the harvesting process.
Eight to ten lateral branches grow on each bush and after three years they are harvested. Cinnamon plants are ready for harvest in about three years after planting. Harvesting is done twice a year in May and November.
The bark of the cut down shoot is split on the day of harvest itself and dried in the sun for tow to five days. Cinnamon bark is a popular spice with a delicate fragrance and a warm taste. The brown-coloured bark is easily chewable. It is used in the form of small pieces or powder. It gives a dish a very rich flavour.
Cinnamon is an essential ingredient of the Kerala cuisine. It is used to flavour a variety of foods, from confections to curries. The stick cinnamon is added whole to rice dishes, mulled wines, punches, and syrups for poaching fruit.
The chips are also used in tea infusions or spiced cider blends. Ground cinnamon is used in baked goods like cakes, pastries and biscuits. Cinnamon leaf oil is used in processed meats, condiments and also in bakery items. It is also used in the preparation of desserts, chocolate, spicy candies and liquors.
In the Middle-East, it is often used in savoury dishes of chicken and lamb. In America, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavour cereals and fruits, especially apples. It is also used in pickling. Cinnamon leaf and bark oil are obtained by distilling the leaf and bark separately.
The cinnamon bark oil has anti-fungal properties and cinnamon leaf oil is widely used in perfumes and cosmetics. It is also used in flavoring confectionary, liquors and pharmaceuticals.
Cinnamon is a stimulant, astringent and carminative, used as an antidote for colds, Diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and other problems of the digestive system. It is also used by diabetic patients in digestion of sugar.
Two teaspoons of cinnamon – a total of 5.20 gm – contains 12.84 calories.
Uses
The commercial products of cinnamon are quills, quillings, featherings, chips, cinnamon bark oil and cinnamon leaf oil.
Quills are scraped peel of the inner bark of the mature cinnamon shoots, joined together with overlapping tubes, the hollow of which has been filled with smaller pieces of cinnamon peels which is dried first in the sun and thereafter in the shade.
Quillings are broken pieces and splits of all grades of cinnamon quills. Featherings are feather-like pieces of inner bark consisting of shavings and small pieces of bark left over. Cinnamon chips are rough unpeelable barks scraped off from the thicker stems.
Cinnamon leaf and bark oil are obtained by distilling the leaf and bark separately. Cinnamon bark is a popular spice with a delicate fragrance and a warm agreeable taste. It is used in the form of small pieces or powder.
It is widely used in flavouring confectionery and liquors. It is found to help diabetics in digestion of sugar. It has astringent; stimulant and carminative properties and can check nausea and vomiting. The cinnamon bark oil has anti-fungal properties and cinnamon leaf oil is widely used in perfumery and cosmetics.
Indian Names
HindiDalchini, darchiniBengaliDalchiniGujaratiDalchiniKannadaLavangapattaiMalayalamKaruvapattaMarathi DalchiniOriyaDalchiniPunjabiDalchiniSanskritDarushilaTamilKaruvapattai, SannalavangapattaiUrduDalchini
Bengali: DalchiniGujarati: DalchiniKannada: LavangapattaiMalayalam: KaruvapattaMarathi: DalchiniOriya: DalchiniPunjabi: DalchiniSanskrit: DarushilaTamil: Karuvapattai, SannalavangapattaiUrdu: Dalchini World's Healthiest
Foods RatingRuleexcellentDV>=75% OR
Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10%very goodDV>=50% OR
Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5%goodDV>=25% OR
Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%
Health Benefits
Cinnamon's unique healing abilities come from three basic types of components in the essential oils found in its bark. These oils contain active components called cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, and cinnamyl alcohol, plus a wide range of other volatile substances.
Anti-Clotting Actions
Cinnamaldehyde (also called cinnamic aldehyde) has been well-researched for its effects on blood platelets. Platelets are constituents of blood that are meant to clump together under emergency circumstances (like physical injury) as a way to stop bleeding, but under normal circumstances, they can make blood flow inadequate if they clump together too much. The cinnaldehyde in cinnamon helps prevent unwanted clumping of blood platelets. (The way it accomplishes this health-protective act is by inhibiting the release of an inflammatory fatty acid called arachidonic acid from platelet membranes and reducing the formation of an inflammatory messaging molecule calledthromboxane A2.) Cinnamon's ability to lower the release of arachidonic acid from cell membranes also puts it in the category of an "anti-inflammatory" food that can be helpful in lessening inflammation.
Anti-Microbial Activity
Cinnamon's essential oils also qualify it as an "anti-microbial" food, and cinnamon has been studied for its ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi, including the commonly problematic yeast Candida. In laboratory tests, growth of yeasts that were resistant to the commonly used anti-fungal medication fluconazole was often (though not always) stopped by cinnamon extracts.
Cinnamon's antimicrobial properties are so effective that recent research demonstrates this spice can be used as an alternative to traditional food preservatives. In a study, published in the August 2003 issue of the International Journal of Food Microbiology, the addition of just a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to 100 ml (approximately 3 ounces) of carrot broth, which was then refrigerated, inhibited the growth of the foodborne pathogenic Bacillus cereus for at least 60 days. When the broth was refrigerated without the addition of cinnamon oil, the pathogenic B. cereus flourished despite the cold temperature. In addition, researchers noted that the addition of cinnamon not only acted as an effective preservative but improved the flavor of the broth.
Blood Sugar Control
Seasoning a high carb food with cinnamon can help lessen its impact on your blood sugar levels. Cinnamon slows the rate at which the stomach empties after meals, reducing the rise in blood sugar after eating.
Researchers measured how quickly the stomach emptied after 14 healthy subjects ate 300 gram (1.2 cups) of rice pudding alone or seasoned with 6 gram (1.2 teaspoons) of cinnamon. Adding cinnamon to the rice pudding lowered the gastric emptying rate from 37% to 34.5% and significantly lessened the rise in blood sugar levels after eating.
Cinnamon may also significantly help people with type 2 diabetes improve their ability to respond to insulin, thus normalizing their blood sugar levels. Both test tube and animal studies have shown that compounds in cinnamon not only stimulate insulin receptors, but also inhibit an enzyme that inactivates them, thus significantly increasing cells' ability to use glucose. Studies to confirm cinnamon's beneficial actions in humans are currently underway with the most recent report coming from researchers from the US Agricultural Research Service, who have shown that less than half a teaspoon per day of cinnamon reduces blood sugar levels in persons with type 2 diabetes. Their study included 60 Pakistani volunteers with type 2 diabetes who were not taking insulin. Subjects were divided into six groups. For 40 days, groups 1, 2 and 3 were given 1, 3, or 6 grams per day of cinnamon while groups 4, 5 and 6 received placebo capsules. Even the lowest amount of cinnamon, 1 gram per day (approximately 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon), produced an approximately 20% drop in blood sugar; cholesterol and triglycerides were lowered as well. When daily cinnamon was stopped, blood sugar levels began to increase.
Test tube, animal and human studies have all recently investigated cinnamon's ability to improve insulin activity, and thus our cells' ability to absorb and use glucose from the blood.
On going in vitro or test tube research conducted by Richard Anderson and his colleagues at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center is providing new understanding of the mechanisms through which cinnamon enhances insulin activity. In their latest paper, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Anderson et al. characterise the insulin-enhancing complexes in cinnamon—a collection of catechin/epicatechin oligomers that increase the body's insulin-dependent ability to use glucose roughly 20-fold. Some scientists had been concerned about potentially toxic effects of regularly consuming cinnamon. This new research shows that the potentially toxic compounds in cinnamon bark are found primarily in the lipid (fat) soluble fractions and are present only at very low levels in water soluble cinnamon extracts, which are the ones with the insulin-enhancing compounds.
A recent animal study demonstrating cinnamon's beneficial effects on insulin activity appeared in the December 2003 issue of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. In this study, when rats were given a daily dose of cinnamon (300 mg per kilogram of body weight) for a 3 week period, their skeletal muscle was able to absorb 17% more blood sugar per minute compared to that of control rats, which had not received cinnamon, an increase researchers attributed to cinnamon's enhancement of the muscle cells' insulin-signaling pathway.
In humans with type 2 diabetes, consuming as little as 1 gram of cinnamon per day was found to reduce blood sugar, triglycerides, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol, in a study published in the December 2003 issue of Diabetes Care. The placebo-controlled study evaluated 60 people with type 2 diabetes (30 men and 30 women ranging in age from 44 to 58 years) who were divided into 6 groups. Groups 1, 2, and 3 were given 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon daily, while groups 4, 5, and 6 received 1, 3 or 6 gram of placebo. After 40 days, all three levels of cinnamon reduced blood sugar levels by 18-29%, triglycerides 23-30%, LDL cholesterol 7-27%, and total cholesterol 12-26%, while no significant changes were seen in those groups receiving placebo. The researchers' conclusion: including cinnamon in the diet of people with type 2 diabetes will reduce risk factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
By enhancing insulin signaling, cinnamon can prevent insulin resistance even in animals fed a high-fructose diet! A study published in Hormone Metabolism Research showed that when rats fed a high-fructose diet were also given cinnamon extract, their ability to respond to and utilize glucose (blood sugar) was improved so much that it was the same as that of rats on a normal (control) diet.
Cinnamon is so powerful an antioxidant that, when compared to six other antioxidant spices (anise, ginger, licorice, mint, nutmeg and vanilla) and the chemical food preservatives (BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), and propyl gallate), cinnamon prevented oxidation more effectively than all the other spices (except mint) and the chemical antioxidants.
Cinnamon's Scent Boosts Brain Function
Not only does consuming cinnamon improve the body's ability to utilise blood sugar, but just smelling the wonderful odor of this sweet spice boosts brain activity!
Research led by Dr P Zoladz and presented April 24, 2004, at the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, in Sarasota, FL, found that chewing cinnamon flavored gum or just smelling cinnamon enhanced study participants' cognitive processing. Specifically, cinnamon improved participants' scores on tasks related to attentional processes, virtual recognition memory, working memory, and visual-motor speed while working on a computer-based program. Participants were exposed to four odorant conditions: no odor, peppermint odor, jasmine, and cinnamon, with cinnamon emerging the clear winner in producing positive effects on brain function. Encouraged by the results of these studies, researchers will be evaluating cinnamon''s potential for enhancing cognition in the elderly, individuals with test-anxiety, and possibly even patients with diseases that lead to cognitive decline.
Calcium and Fibre Improve Colon Health and Protect Against Heart Disease
In addition to its unique essential oils, cinnamon is an excellent source of fiber and the trace mineral manganese while also a very good source of calcium. The combination of calcium and fiber in cinnamon is important and can be helpful for the prevention of several different conditions. Both calcium and fibre can bind to bile salts and help remove them from the body. By removing bile, fiber helps to prevent the damage that certain bile salts can cause to colon cells, thereby reducing the risk of colon cancer. In addition, when bile is removed by fiber, the body must break down cholesterol in order to make new bile. This process can help to lower high cholesterol levels, which can be helpful in preventing atherosclerosis and heart disease. For sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome, the fiber in cinnamon may also provide relief from constipation or diarrhea.
A Traditional Warming Remedy
In addition to the active components in its essential oils and its nutrient composition, cinnamon has also been valued in energy-based medical systems, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, for its warming qualities. In these traditions, cinnamon has been used to provide relief when faced with the onset of a cold or flu, especially when mixed in a tea with some fresh ginger.
(The author is certified nutritionist & fitness adviser, and consultant nutritionist, Karmarkar Health Spa, Goregaon)
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