Cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum, synonym C. cassia)

is an evergreen tree native to southern China and Indochina, a close relative to the Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), and Malabathrum (Cinnamomum tamala) trees. As with these species, a spice is made from the bark of cassia. Most of the spice sold as cinnamon in the United States and Canada (where true cinnamon is still generally unknown) is actually cassia. Sometimes cassia is called “Indonesian cinnamon” to distinguish it from the more expensive true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), which is the preferred form of the spice used in Mexico and Europe.

Cassia
from Koehler’s Medicinal-Plants (1887)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Laurales Family: Lauraceae Genus: Cinnamomum Species: C. aromaticum
Binomial name
Cinnamomum aromaticum Nees

Cassia has a greyish bark, and hard elongated leaves that have a decidedly reddish cast when young. Whole branches and small trees are harvested for cassia bark, unlike the small shoots used for cinnamon; this gives the bark a much thicker and rougher texture. The flavour is less delicate than that of cinnamon bark; sometimes the less expensive cassia is called “bastard cinnamon”.

Up to the 1960s Vietnam was the world’s most important producer of cassia. Because of the Vietnam War, production in the highlands of the Indonesian island of Sumatra was increased; Indonesia remains one of the main cassia exporters today. Vietnamese cassia, only having become available again in the United States since the early 21st century, has an intense flavor and aroma and a higher percentage of essential oil than Indonesian cassia. Another, rarer form of cassia, produced in China, is said to be sweeter and more peppery than Indonesian cassia.

Uses

Cassia bark (both powdered and in whole, or “stick” form) is used as a flavouring agent, both for sweetmeats and for meat; it is specified in many curry recipes, where cinnamon is less suitable. Cassia is sometimes added to true cinnamon but is a much thicker, coarser product and does not coil into quills as effectively.

In some Southeast Asian cuisines (particularly those of Thailand and Laos), cassia leaves and flowers, either fresh or pickled in brine, are used in cooking. In China, cassia flowers are used to make cassia flower jam, as well as cassia flower cakes.

History

In classical times, four types of cinnamon were distinguished (and often confused):

• Cassia (Hebrew, qesia), the bark of Cinnamomum iners from Arabia and Ethiopia
• Cinnamon proper (Hebrew qinnamon), the bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum from Sri Lanka
• Malabathrum or Malobathrum (from Sanskrit ????????????, tamalapattram, literally “dark-tree leaves”), Cinnamomum malabathrum from the North of India
• Serichatum, Cinnamomum cassia from Seres, that is, China.

In Exodus 30, 23, Moses is ordered to use both sweet cinnamon (Kinnamon) and cassia (qesia) together with myrrh, sweet calamus and olive oil to produce a holy oil to anoint the Ark of the Covenant. Psalm 45, 9, mentions the garments of Torah scholars that smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia.

The first Greek reference to kasia is found in a poem by Sappho in the 7th century B.C.

According to Herodot, both cinnamon and cassia grow in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh, and ladanum, and are guarded by winged serpents. The phoenix builds its nest from cinnamon and cassia. But Herodot mentions other writers that see the home of Dionysos, e.g. India, as the source of cassia. While Theophrastus gives a rather good account of the plants, but a curious method for harvesting (worms eat away the wood and leave the bark behind), Dioscorides seems to confuse the plant with some kind of water-lily.

Pliny (nat. 12, 86-87) gives a fascinating account of the early spice trade across the Red Sea in “rafts without sails or oars”, obviously using the trade-winds, that costs Rome 100 Millions sesterces each year. According to Pliny, a pound (the Roman pound, 327g) of cassia, cinnamon or serichatum cost up to 300 denars, the wage of ten month’s labour. Diocletian’s Edict on Maximum Prices from 301 AD gives a price of 125 denars for a pound of cassia, while an agricultural labourer earned 25 denars per day.

The Greeks used kásia or malabathron to flavor wine, together with absinth (Artemisia absinthia). Pliny mentions cassia as a flavouring agent for wine as well (Plin. nat. 14, 107f.). Malabathrum leaves (folia) were used in cooking and for distilling an oil used in a caraway-sauce for oysters by the roman gourmet Gaius Gavius Apicius (de re coquinaria I, 29, 30; IX, 7). Malabathrum is among the spices that, according to Apicius, any good kitchen should contain.

Egyptian recipes for kyphi, an aromatic used for burning, included cinnamon and cassia from Hellenistic times onwards. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon as well as incense, myrrh, and Indian incense (kostos), so we can conclude that the Greeks used it in this way too.

The famous Commagenum, an unguent produced in Commagene in present-day eastern Turkey was made from goose-fat and aromatised with cinnamon oil and spikenard (Nardostrachys jatamansi). Malobrathum from Egypt (Dioscorides I, 63) was based on cattle-fat and contained cinnamon as well; one pound cost 300 denars. The Roman poet Martial (VI, 55) makes fun of Romans who drip unguents, smell of cassia and cinnamon taken from a bird’s nest and look down on him who does not smell at all.

Cinnamon, as a warm and dry substance, was believed by doctors in ancient times to cure snakebites, freckles, the common cold, and kidney troubles, among other ailments.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Cassia”.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 at 11:00 am and is filed under Aromatherapy and Essential Oils. Both comments and pings are currently closed.