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Arabic: القرفة
Dutch: kaneel
Portuguese: canela
Spanish: canela
The “True Cinnamon”, or Sri Lankan Cinnamon, is the dried inner stem bark of Cinnamomum Verum. Cinnamon plants are grown as bushes. When the plants are two years of age, they typically measure about 2 meters high and 8–12 cm at the base. It is at this stage that they are ready for harvesting. Cinnamomum Verum is mostly cultivated in Sri Lanka, the Malagasy Republic, and Seychelles. It originated in the central hills of Sri Lanka. It is grown in one or two locations in Kerala. Cinnamon is a hardy plant that grows in a range of conditions in Sri Lanka, from semi-dry to wet. The ideal temperature for growing cinnamon is 20–30 °C, and the ideal rainfall is 1250–2500 mm. It thrives well as a forest treat at 300–350 meters above MSL.
The commercial products of cinnamon are quills, quilling’s, featherings, chips, cinnamon bark oil, and cinnamon leaf oil. “Quills” are scraped peels of the inner bark of the mature cinnamon shoots, joined together with overlapping tubes, the hollow of which has been filled with smaller pieces of cinnamon peels, which are dried first in the sun and thereafter in the shade. It is found to help diabetics in the digestion of sugar. It has astringent, stimulant, and carminative properties and can prevent nausea and vomiting. Cinnamon bark oil is antifungal, and cinnamon leaf oil is widely used in perfumery and cosmetics.