CINNAMON is the spicy, aromatic, and stimulating bark of certain species of the genus einnamomum. This genus belongs to the natural order louracea, and was formerly included in !intros. It contains a considerable number of species, natives of tropical and subtropical parts of the east. C. has been in use from the remotest antiquity. It is mentioned in the Old Testament, and by a name almost the same as that which it still bears in most languages. The finest kind is said to be chiefly produced by einnamomum. Izeylanicum (formerly, Taurus cinnamontum), which chiefly grows in the island of Ceylon, although, having been introduced into the West Indies in 1182. along with various other plants of the east, it is now cultivated there to some extent. The tree attains the height of 20 to 30 ft., and is sometimes 1i foot in thickness. Its bark is of a grayish brown color, internally of a yellowish red. The leaves are oval, 4 to 6 in. long, with a blunt point, and marked with three principal nerves. They have the taste of cloves. The flowers are of a silky gray on the outside, and a pale-yellowish color internally. The fruit is somewhat like an acorn in shape; it is a small drupe, brown when ripe. There are two seasons of cinnamon-harvest in Ceylon, the first commencing in April, and the last in Nov.—the former being that in which the chief crop is obtained. The branches of 3 to 5 years' growth being cut down, the epidermis is scraped away; the bark is then ripped up longitudinally with a knife, and gradually loosened, till it can be taken off. The slices are then exposed to the sun, when, as it dries, it curls up into quills, the smaller of which are inserted into the larger, and the whole tied up in bundles of about 89 lbs. each. C. is examined and arranged according to its quality by persons who are obliged for this purpose to taste and chew it, although in a short time it pro duces painful effects on their mouths and tongues. The finest C. is yielded by the young branches of the tree, especially by the numerous shoots which spring up from the stump after a tree has been cut down, and which are cut when about 10 ft. long, and of the thickness of an ordinary walking-stick. The smell, particularly of the thin nest pieces, is delightfully fragrant, and the taste pungent and aromatic, with a mixture of sweetness and astringency. It is used like other spices by cooks and confectioners,
and also in medicine as a tonic, stomachic, and carminative. The average quantity annually imported into London is about 500,000 lbs. Its virtues depend chiefly upon the essential oil which it contains (oil of cinnamon). Oil of cassia is very often substi tuted for this oil, as cassia—whieh, however, may readily be distinguished by its muci laginous taste—is for cinnamon. The root of the cinnamon-tree contains camphor. The fruit yields a concrete oil, called cinnamon suet, which is highly fragrant, and in Ceylon was formerly made into candles, for the exclusive use of the king.—Cassia (q.v.) is the produce of another species of einnantomum.—C. loureirii, a native of Cochin China and Japan, is said to yield a bark even superior to that of a zeylankum. A species of C., which ascends to the elevation of 8,500 ft. in the Sikkim Himalaya, deserves a trial even in the climate of Britain.
The constituents of C. are a volatile oil (oil of C.), tannin, starch, mucilage, woody fiber, resin, coloring matter, and an acid. The oil of C. is generally prepared in Ceylon by grinding the coarsest pieces of C., soaking them in sea-water for two or three days, and then distilling. Two oils pass over, one lighter, the other heavier than water. Oil of C. varies in color from yellow to cherry-red, the yellow variety being considered the best, and is most highly esteemed. Oil of a leaf is prepared from the leaves in Ceylon by a similar process, and is met with in commerce under the name of dove oil, which it much resembles in odor. a water is obtained by adding water to C., and distilling a large quantity, or by diffusing the oil of a through water by the aid of sugar or carbo nate of magnesia. Spirit of a is procured by acting upon C. with spirit of wine and C.
water, and distilling; and tincture of C., by soaking in spirit of wine, and straining.
The medicinal properties of C., and its preparation, are aromatic and carminative, and it is serviceable in cases of nausea and vomiting, and in cases of flatulence and spas modic states of the stomach and alimentary canal.