Cinnamon as Traditional and Modern Medicine

Abstract

Muhammad Arshad Ullah and Ali Hassan

Cinnamomum is a middle sized evergreen tree, about 10-15 m tall, innate to Southern India and Sri Lanka, but also is found in central to Burma, southern mainland China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia. In brief, the tree is dispensed in regions between 500 and 1500 m in height. Cinnamon, a plant of the laurel species Lauraceae, as a spice in numerous cultures for centuries, has been consumed in China for thousands of years against many diseases, for instance the “thirsty disease,” which was an old expression for diabetes in China before the expression diabetes mellitus was created in modern medicine. The constituents of procyanidins contain both procyanidin A-type and B-type bonds. These procyanidins are taken out from cinnamon and berries. They also own antioxidant activities. In the same way, the most important ingredients of cin- namon is trans-cinnamaldehyde or cinnamaldehyde which exists in the essential oil, therefore donating to the fragrance and to the diverse biological activities perceived with cinnamon. Essential oil from cinnamon leaves includes a high level of cinnamon. Subsequently, C. osmophloeum is also used as a replacement spice for C. cassia. One of the main constit- uents of essential oil obtained from C. zeylanicum termed (E)-cinnamaldehyde has an antityrosinase activity, whereas cinnamaldehyde is the main compound accountable for this activity. Utilization of cinnamon (short term) is related with a notable decrease in systolic Blood Pressure (BP) and diastolic BP. Even though cinnamon exhibits hopeful influences on BP-dropping potential, it would be premature to advise cinnamon for BP control owing to the limited number of in- vestigations available. Its bark has been extensively used as a flavoring and spice agent for periods. Cinnamon has been suggested to have many pharmacological attributes, containing antimicrobial effects and antioxidant activity. Cinnamo- mum zeylanicum (CZ) extracts on diabetes demonstrates numerous beneficial effects. CZ reduced total cholesterol, LDL choles-terol and triglycerides while increasing HDL-cholesterol in diabetics. The essential oils obtained from the bark of CZ and eugenol has shown very powerful activities, decreasing 3-nitrotyro- sine formation and inhibiting the peroxynitrite-induced lipid peroxidation in in-vitro assays. The volatile oils of CZ have shown 55.9% and 66.9% antioxidant activity at 100 and 200 ppm concentration, respectively. The dried fruit extracts of CZ with ethyl acetate, acetone, methanol and water exhibited antioxidant activity in the order of water > methanol > acetone > ethyl acetate. CZ bark extracts were found to be potent in free rad-ical scavenging activity especially against DPPH radicals and ABTS radical cations, while the hydroxyl and super-oxide radicals were also scavenged by the tested compounds. CZ has 65.3% of anti-oxidant ac-tivity and strong free radical scavenging activity. Treatment of 54 healthy volunteers with CZ 100 mg/30ml of tea daily were significantly effective in the reduction of lipid peroxidation and increas- ing TAP and TTM in comparison with controls. Cinnamon bark extract entrapped in nanoparticles prepared with poly- DL-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA), a biocompatible polymer widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and which could be used in the food industry to deliver antimicrobial compounds to food matrices. Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) bark essential oil (CBEO) has been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine to soothe aching joints and numb pain. It is still used for similar purposes in India, presumably because of its antiinflammatory property. CBEO typically contains a very high amount of cinnamaldehyde and a small amount of eugenol, among many other aromatic compounds. CBEO and cinnamaldehyde have been studied for their antibacterial, antifungal, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities. Furthermore, CBEO has gained popularity for use in skin care products; however, research on its effects on human skin is largely scarce.

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