CINNAMON AND INFLUENZA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 218, 11 June 1929, Page 13

CINNAMON AND INFLUENZA

?Sir, —I have a habit of never accepting i remedy without knowing some of its personal history, so to speak. Someone recommended me, backed by indisputable evidence, cinnamon as a remedy for colds and jnfluenza, particularly the latter. Cinnamon is the bark of the cinnamon tree that grows in many tropical lands and sub-tropical countries, but it is at its best for quality and fineness in Ceylon. I remembered the mention of this healing herb in Holy Writ. If I do not misremeinber its pleasant perfume, formed one of the ingredients of incense used in Bible times. Cinnamon, then, was so much valued that it fetched the equivalent of £3O per pound. The use of cinnamon to-day lies in its volatile properties, and like all volatile oils in its evaporating qualities is its virtue. A strong but pleasant, aroma is given-off-by cinnamon oil, which, when, taken on sugar, in hot water, or in tablet form, provides relief to cold sufferers and influenza victims by after-effects of inhalation. . "

During the epidemic of influenza which swept the country a decade ago, many people trusted their health to cinnamon. ■The aroma of cinnamon is a powerful destructor of microbes.. Some years ago some interesting experiments were made With cinniimon -at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. A large quantity of microbes were placed in a test tube. The instant the aroma of cinnamon came'in contact ■with the microbes they fell to the bottom stupefield and killed. A similar test was conducted substituting the brilliant rays of sunlight for the cinnamon aroma; the same thing happened, but the result was much slower. , „ . Our ancestors no doubt can thank their mulled wines and ales so full of cibnamon and other spices for immunity against attacks of colds, and influenza, to which the exposed life they lived rendered them liable. No living disease germ can resist the antiseptic powers of Cinnamon for long. Not only is cinnamon an old time remedy, but a remedy that receives the approbation. of modern medical research and knowledge.—l am, etc.. W.M. Wellington, June 6.