Cinnamon Uses
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Armaou Sofia
Posted on: November 17, 2000

I would like to know what cinnamon is good for and how it can be used.

Cinnamon is, of course, one of the world’s most important spices. It dried inner bark of a tree and is used to flavour spice punches and wines, teas, cooked fruit, sweet baked goods, and some meat and fish dishes.

There are two main kinds: the true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) and the cassia or Chinese cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia). In North America, almost all of the cinnamon in the trade is the cheaper and less sweet cassia variety.

Cinnamom has medicinal properties. Here is what herbalist Margaret Grieve wrote in her classic "A Modern Herbal" about its medicinal properties and uses:

"Carminative, astringent, stimulant, antiseptic; more powerful as a local than as a general stimulant; is prescribed in powder and infusion but usually combined with other medicines. It stops vomiting, relieves flatulence, and given with chalk and astringents is useful for diarrhoea and haemorrhage of the womb."

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