Pharmaceutical - Cortex Cinnamoni
Botanical -Cinamomum Zeylanicum Blume / Cinamomum Verum
Plant family - Lauraceae (laurel family).
Sinhalese - Kurundu
English - Ceylon Cinnamon
Spanish - Canela
Cinnamon is one well known spice and Sri Lanka is a treasure trove for the best cinnamon worldwide. Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of the ever green tree Cinamomum Zeylunicum. It is harvested during the rainy seasons when the bark is most flexible and easier to work with. This usually is the period between May to January.
Wild cinnamon trees easily grow up to reach the height of about 65 feet, but trees grown for harvesting purposes are pruned when they reach the height of about 10 feet as it will help the tree to grow finer branches and produce finer barks yielding a high proportion of cinnamon. This process is called "Coppicing" in other words. Once the tree reaches three years of age it is harvested twice a year during the rainy seasons. Most Sri Lankan trees are hundreds of years old and are viable to live hundreds more.