Cinnamomum

The genus Cinnamomum consists of small, evergreen trees and shrubs of 10–15 m tall. Plants are found in south-east Asia, China, and Australia as well as in Africa. The bark is widely employed as a spice, its leaves are ovate–oblong in shape, and 7–18 cm long (Cardoso-Ugarte et al., 2016).

Flowers arranged in panicles have a greenish color and have a rather disagreeable odor. The fruit is a purple 1 cm berry containing a single seed (Cardoso-Ugarte et al., 2016; Leela, 2008). It is found in tropical rain forests, where it grows at various altitudes from highland slopes to lowland forests and occurs in both marshy places and on well-drained soils. However, in latitudes with seasonal climatic conditions, they become exceedingly rare (Jantan et al., 2008; Cardoso-Ugarte et al., 2016).