Health Benefits Cinnamon

Herbal Remedies Cinnamon

Diabetes

Health Benefits Cinnamon, as a dominant inducer of insulin sensitivity making it an effectual treatment for Type II diabetes. While cinnamon has been reported to have amazing pharmacological effects in the treatment of type II diabetes, the plant material used in the study was mostly from cassia.

One of the first human studies published was in 2003 in the journal, Diabetes Care. Sixty people with type II diabetes took 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon in pill form daily, a quantity more or less equivalent to one quarter to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

After 40 days, all 3 amounts of cinnamon reduced fasting blood glucose by 18 to 29%, triglycerides by 23 to 30%, LDL cholesterol by 7 to 27%, and total cholesterol by 12 to 26%.

Antioxidant

Cinnamon contains some of the most diverse and effective antioxidants of all plants, making it a vital food in the control of oxidative stress. This makes it a viable alternative in treating the wide range of chronic diseases that are associated with oxidative damage. A common means of consumption as an antioxidant is tea made from the bark.

Some of the Antioxidants, Health Benefits Cinnamon, are caffeic acid, camphene, coumaric acid, epicatechin, gamma-terpinene, isoeugenol, linalyl-acetate, mannitol, methyl-eugenol, myrcene, phenol, proanthocyanidins and vanillin.

Health Benefits Cinnamon and Cassia

The name cinnamon is correctly used to refer to Ceylon cinnamon, also known as "true cinnamon" (from the botanical name C. zeylanicum).

The related Cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum), Saigon Cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi), and Cinnamomum burmannii are sometimes marketed as true cinnamon, and other times noted from true cinnamon as "Chinese cinnamon", "Vietnamese cinnamon", or "Indonesian cinnamon."

Ceylon cinnamon, uses only the thin inner bark, and is considered to be not as strong as cassia. Cassia has a much stronger (harsher) taste than cinnamon.

In supermarkets in the United States, all of the powdered cinnamon sold is actually cassia. Cassia is also the kind of cinnamon normally found in supplement form. It naturally contains a compound called coumarin.

Coumarin is found in other plants such as celery, chamomile, sweet clover, and parsley. Coumarin is a toxic element and European health agencies have of late warned against consuming large quantities of cassia. Cassia is contained in much lower amounts in Cinnamomum burmannii because of its low essential oil content. Coumarin is acknowledged to cause liver and kidney damage when consumed in high concentrations. True Ceylon cinnamon has insignificant amounts of coumarin.

History

Cinnamon was known before recorded history. It was so highly esteemed among the earliest nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for crowned heads and other great rulers. Cinnamon is native to the Indian subcontinent (India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam). It was imported to Egypt from China as early as 2000 BC. It is mentioned in the Bible in Exodus 30:23, where Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon and cassia.

Up to the Middle Ages, the supply of cinnamon was a mystery to the Western world. It’s thought that Indonesian rafts brought cinnamon (known in Indonesia as "sweet wood") on a "cinnamon route" directly to East Africa, where local traders then brought it north to the Roman market.

Arab traders brought the spice to Alexandria in Egypt, where it was purchased by Venetian traders from Italy.

The Portuguese discovered Ceylon (Sri Lanka) at the beginning of the 1500’s and restructured the time-honored production of cinnamon by the natives. The Portuguese protected their own monopoly for more than one hundred years.

Dutch traders displaced the Portuguese and established a trading post in 1638. The Dutch East India Company continued to revamp the methods of gathering the product in the wild, and eventually started to farm its own trees. The value of this monopoly had declined as cultivation of the cinnamon tree spread to other areas. The more common cassia bark became more agreeable to consumers, and coffee, tea, sugar, and chocolate began to outperform the popularity of traditional spices.

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Note: Some statements in this health benefits cinnamon article may not be approved by the FDA. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as professional medical advice.