Garden Pharmacy – Cinnamon

I bought a cinnamon tree. I have no idea where I’m going to put it – it’s a small tree – two to five metres – and attractive with its glossy green leaves and red new growth. And it needs to be pruned hard. So I should be able to find a spot for it somewhere even in this little suburban garden. I’m usually very deliberate in designing so it is unlike me to buy a tree before I know where I’m going to plant it, even, where I’m going to plant it to be useful for at least two or three different reasons.

But some research about cinnamon being “a potent botanical for complicated UTI” struck me. Urinary tract infections are one of the most common infections (second only to respiratory infections – coughs, colds and flu). And they are also amongst the most dangerous, and becoming more so with the evolution of antibiotic resistant varieties. Cranberry juice is the home remedy most of us are familiar with, but cranberries have a very high chill factor – they like cold, cold, cold climate swamps, and I live in the subtropics. Creating a very cold swampy microclimate is a step too far.

Cinnamon though, is a tropical or subtropical plant.

There’s not enough research yet to be able to talk about dosages but we know cinnamon is safe in the kind of quantities you could feasibly eat. We know that it helps stop urinary pathogens from forming biofilms and attaching to the lining of the bladder and urinary tract. We know that it works well in combination with antibiotics, improving their effectiveness and reducing the risk of antibiotic resistance, and that it could work well as a prophylactic for people prone to recurrent UTI’s. I suspect that a cinnamon tree in the garden, (I’m thinking cinnamon combined with corn silk as a diuretic, as a tea) might be a bit valuable in case of antibiotic supply chain issues or antibiotic resistant strains of UTI.

And, like every other plant in this series, if nothing else, it makes good muffins.

Cinnamomum zeylanicum, also called Cinnamomum verum, Family Lauraceae, Ceylon, or “true” Cinnamon

The common name “Ceylon cinnamon” gives it away. Cinnamon is native to tropical Sri Lanka. It likes warm, humid conditions, well drained compost rich soil, year-round sunlight. If you are trying to grow it in a marginal climate, then finding a warm protected spot against a north facing wall might do the trick.

In the ground cinnamon will grow into an attractive small tree. But it’s the inner bark of pruned suckers or branches, around an inch thick, that is harvested, so once the tree is well established, the idea is to prune heavily to promote suckering. So you can keep it to a bush size, and even coax it to live happily in a large pot. Like anything pot-grown that you are harvesting from, it will need plenty of regular fertilizing. It won’t cope with waterlogging, and it won’t cope very well with frost but otherwise it’s pretty trouble free apparently.

I’m looking forward to finding a spot for it.

Most of the medicinal use research I found by following links from:

• Natural therapeutics for urinary tract infections—a review – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7498302/
• Antimicrobial Activity of Spices Popularly Used in Mexico against Urinary Tract Infections – https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/12/2/325