Introduction
Cinnamon (English), or Kayu manis (Indonesia
and malaysia), Canelle (French), Canela(Portugal) is
a spice obtained
from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that
is used in both sweet and savoury foods. While Cinnamomum verum is
sometimes considered to be "true
cinnamon", most
cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, which are
also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon".[1]
Cinnamon is the name for
perhaps a dozen species of trees and the commercial spice products that some of
them produce. All are members of the genus Cinnamomum in
the family Lauraceae. Only a few of them are grown commercially for
spice.[1]
History
In
classical times, four types of cinnamon were distinguished (and often
confused):
·
Cassia
(Hebrew קציעה qəṣi`â), the bark of Cinnamomum iners from Arabia and Ethiopia, literally 'the peel of the plant' which is scraped
off the tree
·
True cinnamon (Hebrew קִנָּמוֹן qinnamon),
the bark of C. verum (also called C. zeylanicum)
from Sri Lanka
·
Malabathrum or malobathrum (from Sanskrit तमालपत्रम्, tamālapattram, literally
"dark-tree leaves"), several species including C. tamalafrom
the north of India
·
Serichatum, C.
cassia from Seres, that is, China
Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity. It was
imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, but those who report it had
come from China confuse it with cassia. Cinnamon was so highly prized among
ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a
god: a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple
of Apollo at Miletus. Though its source was kept mysterious in the
Mediterranean world for centuries by the middlemen who handled the spice trade, to protect their monopoly as suppliers, cinnamon
is native to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Malabar Coast of India, and Burma.[1]
The first Greek reference to kasia is
found in a poem by Sappho in the seventh century BC.
According to Herodotus, both cinnamon and cassia grew
in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh, and ladanum, and were guarded by winged serpents. The phoenix was reputed
to build its nest from cinnamon and cassia. Herodotus mentions other writers
who believed the source of cassia was the home of Dionysos, located somewhere east or south of Greece.[1]
The Greeks used kásia or malabathron to
flavour wine, together with absinth wormwood (Artemisia absinthium).
While Theophrastus gives a good account of
the plants, he describes a curious method for harvesting: worms eat away the
wood and leave the bark behind.[1]
Egyptian recipes for kyphi, an aromatic used
for burning, included cinnamon and cassia from Hellenistic times onward. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers
to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon as well as incense, myrrh,
and Indian incense (kostos), so one might conclude that the Greeks used
it for similar purposes.[1]
The Hebrew Bible makes specific mention
of the spice many times: first when Moses is
commanded to use both sweet cinnamon (Hebrew: קִנָּמוֹן, qinnāmôn) and cassia in the holy anointing oil; in Proverbs where the lover's bed is perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon; and in Song of Solomon, a song describing the beauty of his beloved,
cinnamon scents her garments like 'the smell of Lebanon'. Cassia was also
part of the ketoret, the consecrated incense described in the Hebrew Bible and Talmud.
It was offered on the specialized incense altar in the time when the Tabernacle was located in the First and Second Jerusalem
temples. The ketoret was an important component of the temple
service in Jerusalem. Psalm 45:8 mentions the
garments of the king (or of Torah scholars) that smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia.[1]
Pliny gives an
account of the early spice trade across the Red Sea that cost Rome 100 million sesterces each year. Cinnamon was brought around the Arabian peninsula on "rafts without rudders or sails
or oars", taking advantage of the winter trade winds. Pliny also mentions cassia as a flavouring agent
for wine.[1]
According to Pliny, a Roman pound (327 grams
(11.5 oz)) of cassia, cinnamon, or serichatum cost up to 300 denarii,
the wage of ten months' labour. Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices from
301 AD gives a price of 125 denarii for a pound of cassia
while an agricultural labourer earned 25 denarii per day.
Cinnamon was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome,
but the Emperor Nero is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's
supply at the funeral for his wife Poppaea Sabina in AD 65.[1]
Malabathrum leaves (folia) were used in cooking
and for distilling an oil used in a caraway sauce for oysters by the Roman
gourmet Gaius Gavius Apicius. Malabathrum is among the
spices that, according to Apicius, any good kitchen should contain.[1]
The famous Commagenum unguent produced in Commagene, in present-day eastern Turkey, was made from goose
fat aromatised with cinnamon oil and spikenard. Malobathrum from Egypt (Dioscorides I, 63) was
based on beef fat and contained cinnamon, as well; one pound cost 300 denarii.
The Roman poet Martial (VI, 55) made fun of Romans who drip unguents, smell of
cassia and cinnamon taken from a bird's nest, and look down on a man who does
not smell at all.[1]
Through the Middle Ages, the source of cinnamon was a mystery to the
Western world. From reading Latin writers who quoted Herodotus, Europeans had
learned that cinnamon came up the Red Sea to the trading ports of Egypt, but where it came
from was less than clear. When the Sieur de Joinville accompanied
his king to Egypt on crusade in 1248, he reported – and
believed – what he had been told: that cinnamon was fished up in nets at the source of the Nile out
at the edge of the world (i.e., Ethiopia). Marco Polo avoided precision on the topic. Herodotus
and other authors named Arabia as the source of cinnamon: they recounted that
giant cinnamon birds collected the cinnamon
sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew and used them to
construct their nests, and that the Arabs employed a trick to obtain the
sticks. Pliny the Elder wrote
in the first century that traders had made this up to charge more, but the
story remained current in Byzantium as late as 1310.[1]
The first mention that the spice grew in Sri Lanka was in Zakariya
al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad ("Monument
of Places and History of God's Bondsmen") about 1270. This was
followed shortly thereafter by John of Montecorvino in
a letter of about 1292.[1]
Indonesian rafts transported cinnamon directly from the Moluccas
to East Africa , where local traders then carried it north to Alexandria
in Egypt.Venetian traders from Italy held a monopoly on the spice trade in Europe, distributing
cinnamon from Alexandria. The disruption of this trade by the rise of other
Mediterranean powers, such as the Mamluk sultans and
the Ottoman Empire, was one of
many factors that led Europeans to search more widely for other routes to Asia.[1]
When Portuguese traders landed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
they restructured the traditional production and management of cinnamon by the
Sinhalese. They established a fort on the island in 1518 and protected Ceylon
as their cinnamon monopoly for over a hundred years. Later, Sinhalese held the
monopoly for cinnamon in Ceylon.[1]
Dutch traders finally dislodged the Portuguese by allying
with the inland Kingdom of Kandy. They
established a trading post in 1638, took control of the manufactories by 1640,
and expelled the remaining Portuguese by 1658. "The shores of the island
are full of it," a Dutch captain reported, "and it is the best in all
the Orient. When one is downwind of the island, one can still smell cinnamon
eight leagues out to sea." The Dutch East India Company continued
to overhaul the methods of harvesting in the wild and eventually began to
cultivate its own trees.[1]
In 1767, Lord Brown of the British East India Company established
Anjarakkandy Cinnamon Estate near Anjarakkandy in Cannanore (now Kannur)
district of Kerala, and this estate became Asia's largest cinnamon estate.
The British took control of Ceylon from the Dutch in 1796. However, the
importance of the monopoly of Ceylon was already declining, as cultivation of
the cinnamon tree spread to other areas, the more common cassia bark became
more acceptable to consumers, and coffee, tea, sugar,
and chocolatebegan to outstrip the popularity of traditional
spices.[1]
Cultivation
Global
annual production of cinnamon and cassia amounts to 27,500–35,000 tons. Cinnamomum
verum accounts for 7,500–10,000 tons of production, with the remainder
produced by other species. Sri Lanka produces 80–90% of the
world's supply of C. verum, but that is the only species grown
there; C. verum is also cultivated on a commercial scale in Seychelles and Madagascar. Global production of the other species
averages 20,000–25,000 tons, of which Indonesia produces around two-thirds of
the total, with significant production in China. India and Vietnam are also minor producers.[1]
Cinnamon
is cultivated by growing the tree for two years, then coppicing it, i.e., cutting the stems at ground level.
The following year, about a dozen new shoots will form from the roots, replacing
those that were cut. A number of pests such as Colletotrichum
gloeosporioides, Diplodiaspp and (Stripe canker) Phytophthora
cinnamomi can affect that growing plants, sometimes leading to death[1]
The
stems must be processed immediately after harvesting while the inner bark is
still wet. The cut stems are processed by scraping off the outer bark, then
beating the branch evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark, which is then
pried off in long rolls. Only 0.5 mm (0.02 in) of the inner bark is
used; the outer, woody portion is discarded, leaving metre-long cinnamon strips
that curl into rolls ("quills") on drying. The processed bark will
dry completely in four to six hours, provided it is in a well-ventilated and
relatively warm environment. Once dry, the bark is cut into 5- to 10-cm (2- to
4-in) lengths for sale. A less than ideal drying environment encourages the
proliferation of pests in the bark, which may then require treatment by
fumigation. Fumigated bark is not considered to be of the same premium quality
as untreated bark.[1]
Sri Lanka cinnamon has a very thin, smooth bark with a
light-yellowish brown colour and a highly fragrant aroma. In recent years in
Sri Lanka, mechanical devices have been developed to ensure premium quality and
worker safety and health, following considerable research by the universities
in that country, led by the University of Ruhuna.[1]
Species
A
number of species are often sold as cinnamon:
Cassia
is the strong spicy flavour that is associated with cinnamon rolls and other
such baked goods, as it handles baking conditions well. Chinese cinnamon is
generally a medium to light reddish brown, hard and woody in texture, and
thicker (2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) thick), as all of the layers of bark
are used. Ceylon cinnamon, using only the thin inner bark, has a lighter brown
colour, a finer, less dense and more crumbly texture, and is considered to be
subtler and more aromatic in flavour than cassia, losing much of its flavour
during cooking.[1]
Levels
of the blood-thinning agent coumarin in Ceylon cinnamon are much
lower than those in cassia.
The
barks, when whole, are easily distinguished, and their microscopic
characteristics are also quite distinct. Ceylon cinnamon sticks (quills) have
many thin layers and can easily be made into powder using a coffee or spice
grinder, whereas cassia sticks are much harder. Indonesian cinnamon is often
sold in neat quills made up of one thick layer, capable of damaging a spice or
coffee grinder. Saigon cinnamon (C. loureiroi) and Chinese cinnamon (C.
cassia) are always sold as broken pieces of thick bark, as the bark is not
supple enough to be rolled into quills. The powdered bark is harder to
distinguish, but if it is treated with tincture of iodine (a
test for starch), little effect is visible with
pure Ceylon cinnamon, but when Chinese cinnamon is present, a deep-blue tint is
produced.[1]
In Sri langka: The hugest cultivation
of cinnamon, make a grading system from one species cinnamon. The Sri Lankan grading system divides the cinnamon quills
into four groups:
·
Alba, less than
6 mm (0.24 in) in diameter
·
Continental, less than
16 mm (0.63 in) in diameter
·
Mexican, less than
19 mm (0.75 in) in diameter
·
Hamburg, less than
32 mm (1.3 in) in diameter
These groups are
further divided into specific grades. For example, Mexican is divided into M00
000 special, M000000, and M0000, depending on quill diameter and number of
quills per kilogram.[1]
Any pieces of bark
less than 106 mm (4.2 in) long are categorized as quillings.
Featherings are the inner bark of twigs and twisted shoots. Chips are trimmings
of quills, outer and inner bark that cannot be separated, or the bark of small
twigs.[1]
The Usefulness Of Cinnamon
1.
Use as an alcohol flavorant
Cinnamon
is a popular flavoring in numerous alcoholic beverages. Cinnamon brandy concoctions,
called "Cinnamon liqueur" and made with distilled alcohol,
are popular in parts of Greece. In Europe, popular examples of such beverages
are Maiwein (white
wine with woodruff) and Żubrówka (vodka
flavoured with bison grass).
2. Use as Medicine
It’s
possible we’re just brushing the surface here, for Chinese medicine and
Ayurveda have long revered cinnamon as a superpower used to treat things such
as colds, indigestion and cramps and also believed to improve energy, vitality
and circulation. The following are eleven health benefits associated with this
beloved spice that studies have suggested:[2]
1.
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
per day can lower your bad cholesterol (or LDL).
2.
Cinnamon may help treat
Type 2 Diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and increasing the amount of
insulin production in the body.
3.
Cinnamon has antifungal
properties, and it’s been said that candida cannot live in a cinnamon environment.
4.
Cinnamon can reduce the
proliferation of leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells.
5.
Cinnamon has an
anti-clotting effect on the blood.
6.
Honey and Cinnamon
combined have been found to relieve arthritis pain.
7.
When added to food,
cinnamon inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage, making it a natural food
preservative.
8.
Just smelling cinnamon
boosts cognitive function and memory.
9.
Cinnamon fights the E.
coli bacteria in unpasteurized juices.
10.
Cinnamon has been found
to be an effective natural remedy for eliminating headaches
and migraine relief.
11.
Cinnamon can also help
stablize blood sugar (which is great for weight loss). A couple of dashes in
your morning tea or cereal is all it takes!
Health Benefit of Cinnamon[3]
§ The active principles in
the cinnamon spice are known to have anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-septic,
local anesthetic, anti-inflammatory, rubefacient (warming and soothing),
carminative and anti-flatulent properties.
§ Cinnamon spice has the highest anti-oxidant strength
of all the food sources in nature. The
total measured ORAC (Oxygen radical absorbance capacity)
value for this novel spice is 2,67,536 trolex equivalents (TE), which is many
hundred times more than in chokeberry, apples, etc.
§ The spice contains
health benefiting essential oils such as eugenol,
a phenylpropanoids class of chemical compound, which gives pleasant, sweet
aromatic fragrance to it. Eugenol has got local anesthetic and antiseptic
properties, hence; employed in the dental and gum treatment procedures.
§ Other important
essential oils in cinnamon include ethyl
cinnamate, linalool, cinnamaldehyde, beta-caryophyllene, and methyl chavicol.
§ Cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon-sticks has been found to have anti-clotting action,
prevents platelet clogging inside the blood vessels, and thereby helps prevent
stroke, peripheral arterial and coronary artery diseases.
§ The active principles in
this spice may increase the motility of the intestinal tract as well as help
aid in the digestion by increasing gastro-intestinal enzyme secretions.
§ This spicy bark is an
excellent source of minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, zinc,
and magnesium. Iron is required for cellular metabolism as a co-factor and in
RBC's production. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids
that helps control heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese and copper are
chiefly used by the body as co-factors for the antioxidant enzyme,superoxide
dismutase.
§ It also contains very
good amounts of vitamin A, niacin, pantothenic acid, and pyridoxine.
§ Further, it is also a
very good source of flavonoid phenolic anti-oxidants such as carotenes, zea-xanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthin.
3.
Use in Culinary
In order to keep the
fragrance and flavor intact, cinnamon spice is generally powdered just before
preparing dishes and added at the last moment in the cooking recipes, since
prolonged cooking results in evaporation of its essential oils.[3]
§ Around the world, cinnamon
spice is widely used as a spice. It is principally employed in cookery as a
condiment and flavoring base. It is used in the preparation of chocolate and in
some kinds of desserts, such as cinnamon-apple pie and cinnamon buns as well as
pastries, bagels, sweet rolls, spicy candies, tea, hot cocoa, and liqueurs.
§ Cinnamon spice has been in
use in the preparation of many popular dishes in Asian and Chinese cuisine
since ancient times. Along with other spicy items (masala powder), it is being
used in marinating chicken, fish and meats.
§ Some Indian vegetarian and
chicken curries and rice dishes (biriyani) contain small amounts of ground
powder. In the Middle East, it is used in meat and rice dishes.
§ It has also been used in
the preparation of soups, barbecue sauces, pickling and as one of the
ingredients in variety of curry powders.
Some-kind of cinnamon recipes
a. Cinnamon Healthy Recipes: Cinnamon Flax Fruit[4]
Ingredients:
·
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
·
4 tablespoons flax seeds
Procedure:
1.
Grind the flax seeds in a coffee grinder. Add cinnamon.
2.
Top fruit with flax mix.
This recipe makes four servings.
*Use bananas and green apples that are not
fully ripe and contain less sugar.
(From Healthy Recipes for Your Nutritional Type by Dr. Mercola)
(From Healthy Recipes for Your Nutritional Type by Dr. Mercola)
b.
Cinnamon Dolce Latte Syrup[5]
Ingredient :
-1
cup water
-3/4
cup packed light brown sugar
-1/4
cup white sugar
-1
teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1
tablespoon extract pure vanilli
Procedure :
1. Place a saucepan over medium-high heat; add water, brown sugar,
and white sugar. Whisk until sugar dissolves, 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk cinnamon
into sugar mixture until incorporated. Continue whisking mixture until just
before boiling and syrup-consistency, 3 to 5 more minutes. Remove saucepan from
heat and stir in vanilla extract.
2. Cool syrup completely, at least 1 hour. Pour syrup into a glass
container and seal; store in refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Nutritional Information
Resource :
5. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Dolce-Latte-Syrup/
happy reading all reader... hoping you like this combine article,,,