CINNAMON

Syn. Cinnamon Bark ; Cinnamomi cortex (B. P.), L. The inner bark of shoots from the truncated stock of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum , imported from Ceylon, and distinguished in commerce as Ceylon cinnamon. The best is obtained from branches about three years old. Used in medicine as a carminative and astringent, chiefly as an adjuvant to other medicines, e.g. with chalk, in diarrhœa.— Dose , 10 to 20 grains. Obs. Owing to the high price of this drug it has become a general practice to substitute the bark of ca ia ( Ca ia ; Cortex cinnamomi ca ia ) for it, which so closely resembles it in flavour that the uninitiated regard them as the same. Ca ia, however, is not only thicker and coarser than cinnamon, but its fracture is short and resinous, and its flavour is more biting and hot, whilst it lacks the peculiar sweetish taste of cinnamon. The thickne of cinnamon seldom exceeds that of good drawing paper.