Botanical Name : Cinnamomum zeylanicum  
English Name:  Cinnamon, Ceylon Cinnamon
Sanskrit Name: Tvakl, Dalachini     

Plant Parts Used: Bark

Description of Cinnamomum zeylanicum:

It is a moderate sized tree. The bark is smooth, light pinkish brown and thin, with a strong, pleasant smell and spicy, burning taste. The leaves are opposite or sub-opposite, glabrous, thinly to stiffly coriaceous and oval to lanceolate; the flowers are yellowish green, in axillary panicles; the fruits are ellipsoid to oblong-ovoid and dark purple. The bark constitutes the Cinnamon of commerce.

Principal Constituents:

It contains a significant amount of a mucilaginous substance, which consists mainly of water extractable L-arabino-D-xylan and an alkali-extractable D-glucan. The bark also contains the diterpenes, cinnzeylanin and cinnzeylanol besides tannins.

Pharmacology:

The bark is reported to have shown mutagenic activity in rec -assay in Bacillus subtilis (Ehrenb.) Cohn strains H17 and M45. Thus it may have associated carcinogenic action. The dried bark in the crude form, its water-heated and water-macerated residues, and petroleum ether and chloroform extracts, showed mutagenic activity, whereas water-heated and water-macerated filtrates did not show the activity. In another study, the petroleum ether and chloroform extracts showed a cytotoxic effect on the stable monolayer cell lines from a human mouth carcinoma, and also on the stable suspension cell lines from a mouse lymphoid leukemia.


Medicinal Uses:

Externally the bark is used in neuralgia, rheumatism and toothache. It is aromatic, astringent, stimulant, expectorant and carminative. The oil from the bark shows potent antibacterial and anti-fungal activity.

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