Vern. : — Dâlchînî (H.) ; Karruwâ (Tam.) ; Sanalingu (Tel.) ; Lavanga-patte, dâla-chînî (Kan).
Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula ; also Burma, Malay Peninsula and Ceylon.
A large tree, all parts very aromatic. Bark brown rough, ½ to ¾in. thick. Wood light-red, moderately hard. Leaves, as a rule, opposite, thick, coriaceous, glabrous, upperside shining, underside dull, 3-5 basal nerves. Young foliage pink. Panicles as long as or not much longer than the leaves, sometimes terminal. Flowers grey-silky, 1/6-1/5in. diam. Fruit dark-purple, elongate, ellipsoid, ⅔-1in. long, supported by the much enlarged perianth.
Use : — The bark is officinal in the British Pharmacopeia.
Three oils are obtained from C. zeylanicum : the bark yields essential oil of cinnamon, to the extent of ⅓ to 1 per cent. ; from the leaves is expressed a brown viscid essential oil, sometimes exported from Ceylon as "Clove Oil" (it has a somewhat similar medicinal value to the true oil of cloves) ; and from the root a yellow oil which is specifically lighter than water and has a strongly camphoraceous flavour. In their report for April-May, 1904, Schimmel & Co. discuss several reactions for distinguishing between Ceylon cinnamon oil and cassia oil, with which the former is not infrequently adulterated. [Cf. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, Volatile Oils, 1900, 377-92.]
1088. C. macrocarpum, Hook., h.f.b.i., v. 133.
Vern. : — Kama, bahena, tikhi (Malayálam).
Habitat : — North. Kanara.
An evergreen shrub. Branches slender. Wood rather thinly coriaceous, very faintly reticulate beneath. Leaves 5-8in. long, 1½-3in. broad, oblong-lanceolate, 3-5-nerved, lateral nerves ⅔in above the base. Petiole ¾-lin. Panicles shorter than the leaves Fruiting peduncle long, slender for the size of the fruit, which is much the largest of the genus. Fruiting perianth apparently fleshy together with the thickened pedicel nearly lin. long, broadly funnel-shaped, very shortly 6-toothed. Fruit lin. long, globosely oblong.
Use. : — From the root bark, as also the leaves, an oil is prepared and used as an external medicine (Rheede).
