Cinnamon (pron.: /ˈsɪnəmən/ SIN-ə-mən) is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. While Cinnamomum verum is sometimes considered to be "true cinnamon", most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, which are also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon".
Cinnamon is the name for perhaps a dozen species of trees and the commercial spice products that some of them produce. All are members of the genus Cinnamomum in the family Lauraceae. Only a few of them are grown commercially for spice.
In Sri Lanka, in Sinhala, cinnamon is known as kurundu (කුරුඳු), recorded in English in the 17th century as Korunda. It is called as ”Karuva”(கறுவா) in Tamil. In Indonesia, where it is cultivated in Java and Sumatra, it is called kayu manis ("sweet wood"). In several European languages, the word for cinnamon comes from the Latin word cannella, a diminutive of canna, "tube", from the way it curls up as it dries.
