Native to Southeast Asia, this handsome tree is so rich in a natural chemical called cinnamaldehyde (as much as one-fourth of its essential oils) that it has a super-rich cinnamon flavour! However, research has shown that cinnamaldehyde is not here to merely titillate the taste buds – it is actually a potent mosquito killer.
Indeed, research has shown that by combining the essential oils extracted from the barks of Vietnamese, Chinese and Ceylon Cinnamon trees with cinnamaldehyde, one gets a potent insecticide that kills adult Dengue-causing mosquitoes*.
That’s not all. The tree, among the four species that provide the world with all its cinnamon, contains the second-largest amount of coumarin. Coumarin is an interesting chemical, similar in odour to vanilla but bitter to taste, which also has medicinal properties – especially as an anticoagulant to ensure prevent internal clotting of blood.
Doesn’t this make Saigon the Lord of Phytochemicals!