ETHNOBOTANY, PHY TOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CINNAMOMUM ZEY LANICUM BLUME .

Cinnamomum zeylanicum , popularly known as cinnamon or ceylon cinnamon refers to the tropical evergreen tree as well as the bark that is extracted from the plant. Cinnamon are recognized for its sweet flavour and aroma and used as an important spice in India in almost every del icious dishes .The spice has gained more importance due to its well uses as remedy for the treatment of various types of disorders in the Ayurvedic and folklore system of medicine in India from the era of “ Charaka samhita ” . The herb is used for the treatm ent of dyspeptic conditions, flatulence, loss of appetite, abdominal pain with diarrhoea, inflammation of the eye, leukorrhoea, vaginitis, rheumatism, n euralgia, wounds, and toothache . The oil isolated from the different parts of the plant containing cinna maldehyde and eugenol as major constituents are considered as active principle of cinnamon. Over the past two decades many sc ientific journals are describing its nutritional and medicinal properties. This review has tried to include an up to date phytochem ical and b iological research on cinnamon. The ethnobotanical uses have also been discussed.