Name: Cinnamon
Latin Name: Cinnamonum Cassia Presl
Pin Yin: Rou Gui
Location: Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Malabar Coast of India, Myanmar (Burma), South America and the West Indies

Overview: The bark is pungent and sweet in flavor, and not in nature. It acts on the heart, spleen, liver and kidney channels. As a pungent, sweet, extremely hot and pure Yang herb, Chinese cassia bark in similar to but slightly weaker than prepared aconite root in supplementing fire and dispersing cold. However, the bark has a mild and lasting effect, and can conduct the fire back to its origin. Therefore, it is often used to treat Yang-deficiency of the spleen and kidney, decline of the fire from the gate of life, pains due to cold, and Yang being expelled externally by Yin-excess in the interior, and other syndromes.

History: Cinnamon was once more valuable than gold and has been associated with ancient rituals of sacrifice or pleasure. In Egypt, it was sought for embalming and witchcraft; in medieval Europe for religious rites and as flavouring. References to cinnamon are plenty throughout the Old Testament in the Bible. Later it was the most profitable spice in the Dutch East India Company trade.

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the wild root was near extinction in North America due to over-harvesting and the destruction of its natural habitat. At this point, farmers began cultivating the sensitive plant and after numerous failed attempts the first harvests of cultivated ginseng reached the market. From 1880 to1960 the ginseng trade experienced many ups and downs for reasons as diverse as blight and world wars but since the 1960s the trade in American ginseng has grown steadily.

In the 1990s more North Americans than ever have been converted by the wonderful and various curative properties of ginseng and in addition to the trade still flourishing with China, there is a sizeable domestic market for the root.

Primary Uses:

• To tonify the kidney
• To dispel cold and stop pain
• To warm the channels and promote circulation

Parts Used: In modern times, cinnamon is used to flavor a variety of foods, from confections to curries; in Europe and the USA it is especially popular in bakery goods. The stick cinnamon is added whole to casseroles, rice dishes, mulled wines and punches, and to 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, pasteries and biscuits. Cinnamon leaf oil is used in processed meats, condiments and also in bakery items. Oil from the bark is used in the manufacture of perfume. The cinnamic aldehyde and/or eugenol present are both antifungal agents. Cinnamon is a stimulant, astringent and carminative, used as an antidote for diarrhoea and stomach upsets.

Safety: Since the herb is pungent and hot, which supports fire and activates blood, it is contraindicated in Yin-deficiency, excessive fire and bleeding tendency, and should used cautiously in pregnancy.

Important Note: In laboratory studies, cinnamon — together with turmeric, cloves, and bay leaves — tripled the ability of insulin to metabolize glucose, the blood sugar that supplies us with energy.

Supporting Research:

• Much scientific research has focused recently on the health benefits of herbs and spices. Some of these benefits are broad-based, but others are specific to one or a few physiological functions in the body. A good example is cinnamon, which may be of great value in maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, and cholesterol levels as well.¹
• The present study concludes that ethanol extracts could be used as a good source of antioxidant in the dietary supplement.²
• In this review, we introduce the major recent results on cinnamomin obtained in our laboratory, including purification of this protein, characterization of its enzymatic mechanism, structure and function, gene pattern, physiological role and its biological implications in cytotoxicity.³

¹Aaron W. Jensen, Ph.D., “Cinnamon Reduces Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Levels”, InsuLife™.

²Lin CC, Wu SJ, Chang CH, Ng LT., Graduate Institute of Natural Products, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. [Antioxidant activity of Cinnamomum cassia.], Phytother Res. 2003 Aug; 17(7): 726-30.

³He WJ, Liu WY., State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue-Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China., [Cinnamomin: a multifunctional type II ribosome-inactivating protein.], Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2003 Jul;35(7):1021-7.