Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylandica) and cassia (C. cassia)
LAURACEAE, Laurel Family
The laurel family (Lauraceae) consists of mostly evergreen species with aromatic stems and leaves, because they have large, spherical glands in the leaves, bark, and, sometimes, the wood. Leaves, such as bay (Laurus nobilis and Umbellularia californica), have been used as culinary herbs; the bark, cinnamon and cassia (Cinnamomum) have been important spices and medicines, including antibacterial; and camphor oil (C. camphora) comes from wood and leaves. Sassafras roots (Sassafras, having safrole) have also been used to make beverages, especially root beer. Cinnamon is still one of the most important flavoring agents and scents in Western and Eastern societies, especially with the current craze for flavored coffees, spicy ciders, body scents, and the ever-alluring aroma of Cinnabon at U.S. malls. Cinnamon is also extremely important in savory dishes, especially Moroccan, Arabic, Persian, and Greek.
By the 17th century B.C., Egyptian Pharaohs and queens used cinnamon and cassia, which they obtained from Asian traders, and it was required for embalming during mummification. In Exodus, Moses anointed a tabernacle using these spices. Meanwhile, use of Cinnamomum is recorded in Chinese medical history from at least 2700 B.C. Nero, who loved to watch things burn, burned cinnamon at his wife's funeral (66 A.D.). Romans heavily used cassia leaf, malabathrum.
Cinnamon and cassia are prepared from young stems. Plants are forced to form many vigorous, young suckers from ground level. Young woody stems several years old are cut into poles several meters in length during the rains to facilitate the peeling of the bark, which separates easily at the vascular cambium during that time. Care is taken to keep the bark in perfect condition, without cracks or unnecessary breaks, because the price received is based in part on the appearance of the product. For the cinnamon species, the surface cells, which are bitter, are removed, and the strips, called quills, are dried. The best samples are sold as whole quills and quillings, which are later subdivided or ground. For cassia, the bark is much thicker and coarser, and the outer bark is not removed, and this is a lower quality product. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission permits both species to be sold in this country as cinnamon, and most of what is used for popular products today is cassia, because the typical consumer does not recognize the difference.
Production of cinnamon is now mostly limited to the wettest lowland areas of Southeast Asia, such as Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Madagascar, and India, where temperatures are 27 degrees C and annual rainfall is 2000-2400 millimeters.