Cinnamomum cassia Presl.Cassia Twig Extract.

Contents

• Plant Description and Basic Data:'Spice of spices'?
• Phytochemicals and Constituents:Cassia Twig Cinnamon.
• Etymology of Cassia.
• Premodern statements of function of Cassia Twig.
• Referential Advice of Cassia Twig.
• Functions and indications of Cassia Twig.
• More Common Indications of Cassia Twig.
• Flavor description of Cinnamon.
• Cassia Twig Cinnamon Twig and Its Modern Popular Uses.
• Cassia Cinnamon and Stomach Strong.
• Cautions and contraindications of Cassia Twig.
• Difference between Cinnamon Twig(Gui Zhi) and Chinese Cassia Bark(Rou Gui).
• How search engine think about Cinamon...or...Cinnamon...or...Cassia...or...Senna...or...Spice...or...
• Research Update:Cassia Twig.

Difference between Cinnamon Twig(Gui Zhi) and Chinese Cassia Bark(Rou Gui).:

Cinnamon Twig or Gui Zhi.:

 Latin Name: Ramulus Cinnamomi

 Origin of Cinnamon Twig.:

 The species Cinnamomum zeylanicum is the bushy evergreen tree of the Lauraceae family, native to Sri Lanka (Ceylon), the neighbouring Malabar Coast of India, and Myanmar (Burma), and also cultivated in South America and the West Indies for the spice consisting of its dried inner bark. The spice is light brown in colour and has a delicately fragrant aroma and warm, sweet flavor.

 Cinnamon was once more valuable than gold. In Egypt it was sought for embalming and witchcraft; in medieval Europe for religious rites and as a flavoring. Later it was the most profitable spice in the Dutch East India Company trade.

 In modern times, cinnamon is used to flavor a variety of foods, from confections to curries; in Europe and the United States it is especially popular in bakery goods. In China, it is used as a decongestant herb to relieve exterior syndromes.

 The Chinese herb cinnamon twigs are mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. The twigs are often cut in spring, exposed to the sun for a time, dried in the air and cut into slices or sections for use.
  

 Cinnamon Twig.:Cautions on Use

 1. It should be avoided by those with external symptoms of excess caused by exopathogenic wind-cold.

 2. Its use is forbidden for those with external symptoms caused by exopathogenic wind-heat such as thirst and taut and rapid pulse, despite aversion to wind and spontaneous perspiration.
 3. To be taken with care by pregnant women and those with menorrhagia.

 Cinnamon Twig.:Modern Researches:

 Cinnamon contains from 0.5 to 1 percent essential oil, the principal component of which is cinnamaldehyde. The oil is distilled from the twig fragments for use in food, liquor, perfume, and drugs. The aldehyde can also be synthesized.
 Functions of cinnamaldehyde:

 1. Cinnamaldehyde has tranquilizing, pain-killing and convulsion-resistant properties. Injecting cinnamaldehyde into the abdominal cavity of a mouse can alleviate the body sprain reaction caused by acetic acid. The use of the dosage of 500 mg/kg can resist tonic convulsions caused by strychnine.
 2. Acts to reduce fever induced in rabbits in experiments.
 3. Relieves coughing and induces diuresis.

 

 Chinese Cassia Bark or Rou Gui.:

 Latin: Cortex Cinnamomi

 Origin of Chinese Cassia Bark.:

 The aromatic bark of Cinnamomum cassia Presl., a plant of the family Lauraceae. Similar to true cinnamon, cassia bark has a more pungent, less delicate flavour and is thicker than cinnamon bark. It contains from 1 to 2 percent oil of cassia, a volatile oil, the principal component of which is cinnamic aldehyde. Cassia bark is used as a flavouring in cooking and particularly in liqueurs and chocolate. Southern Europeans prefer it to cinnamon, but, in North America, ground cinnamon is sold without distinction as to the species from which the bark is obtained.

 Cassia bark is peeled from stems and branches and set aside to dry. Some varieties are scraped. While drying, the bark curls into quills. The colour varies from light reddish brown for the thin, scraped bark to gray for the thick, unscraped bark. Ground cassia is reddish brown in colour. Cassia from China is less aromatic than that from Vietnam and Indonesia. Cassia from all three countries has a sweet, aromatic, and pungent flavour. Vietnamese, or Saigon, cassia is particularly highly esteemed.

 Cassia buds, the dried, unripe fruits of Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum loureirii, have a cinnamon-like aroma and a warm, sweet, pungent taste akin to that of cassia bark. The whole buds are added to foods for flavouring. The brown, immature fruit is snugly held in a cuplike, hard, wrinkled, grayish-brown calyx (the whole commonly called a bud) varying in size but ordinarily 11 millimetres long, including the calyx tube; the upper part of the bud may be about 1 cm in diameter.

 Confusion sometimes arises with another group of plants because Cassia is the generic name of an extensive genus of leguminous plants, which, in addition to various other medicinal products, is the source of senna leaves.
 
 


 Chinese Cassia Bark.:Property and Functions

 Properties: Pungent and sweet in flavor, hot in nature, it is related to the spleen, kidney, heart and liver channels.

 Functions: Supplements fire and restores yang, dispels cold and kills pain as well as warms the channels and removes obstruction in the collaterals.

 Chinese Cassia Bark.:Applications:

 1. To treat impotence and retention of cold in the uterus due to the deficiency of spleen-yang, palpitations with asthma of the insufficiency type, etc.:

 This herb is mostly used together with monkshood root (Radix Aconiti Praeparata), prepared rehmannia, shelled medicinal cornel fruit (Fructus Corni), etc., e.g., Shenqi Wan, You Gui Yin.
 2. To treat cold pain in the chest and abdomen and cold hernia with pain:
 a) Cold pain in the abdomen due to invasion of cold into the interior or deficiency-cold in the spleen and stomach:

 This herb can be ground alone into powder and decocted with wine for oral administration or used together with dried ginger, lesser galangal (Rhizoma Alpiniae Officinarum), long pepper (Fructus Piperis Longi), etc.
 b) Vomiting with abdominal pain, cold limbs and loose stools due to yang deficiency of the spleen and kidneys:
 This herb is often used together with monkshood root (Radix Aconiti Praeparata), ginseng, dried ginger, etc., e.g., Gui Fu Lizhong Wan.
 c) Cold hernia and abdominal pain:
 This herb is mostly used together with evodia fruit, fennel, etc.
 3. To treat lumbago with arthralgia due to cold, obstruction of qi in the chest and deep-rooted carbuncles:
 a) Lumbago with arthralgia due to cold:
 This herb is mostly used together with angelica root (Radix Angelicae Pubescentis), parasitic loranthus, eucommia bark, etc., e.g., Duhuo Jisheng Tang.
 b) Epigastric pain due to obstruction of qi in the chest as a result of suppression of chest yang and invasion of pathogenic cold into the interior:
 This herb can be used together with monkshood root (Radix Aconiti Praeparata), dried ginger, zanthoxylum, etc.
 c) Deep-rooted carbuncles due to deficiency of yang and stagnation of cold:
 This herb can be used together with deerhorn glue, blast-fried ginger, ephedra, etc., e.g., Yang He Tang.
 4. To treat amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea:
 This herb can be used together with Chinese angelica, chuanxiong (Rhizoma Ligustici Chuanxiong), fennel, etc., e.g., Shaofu Zhuyu Tang.
 5. To treat weakness due to prolonged illness and insufficiency of qi and blood:
 The addition of cassia bark into a recipe to nourish qi and replenish blood can stimulate the growth of qi and blood.
 


 Chinese Cassia Bark.:Modern Researches

 This herb contains a volatile oil with cinnamic aldehyde, cinnamyl acetate, phenylpropyl acetate, etc., as its main ingredients. It also contains phlegm, tannin, etc.

 This herb can dilate blood vessels, promote blood circulation, increase blood flow in the coronary artery and brain and reduce the resistance of blood vessels. In vitro, its methyl alcohol extract and cinnamic aldehyde can resist platelet aggregation and thrombase. Cassia oil, cinnamic aldehyde and sodium cinnamate have tranquilizing, analgesic, antipyretic and anticonvulsant effects.

 Cassia oil has a moderate stimulant effect on the gastric mucosa and through the stimulation of osphresis, it reflexively promotes the functions of the stomach, promotes bowel movements, increases the secretion of the digestive tract, enhances digestive functions, removes stagnated qi in the digestive tract and moderates spasmodic pains of the stomach and intestines. Cassia oil may cause congestion of the uterus.

 Cassia oil can inhibit Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The ether, alcohol and water infusions of the cassia bark have certain inhibitory effects on a variety of pathogenic fungi.

Reference:

• 1.Cinnamomum cassia Presl.Cassia Twig Extract.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:12th,Oct.2010.