Cassia is a perennial plant, a bush of the legume family. This herb is also called fake or Chinese cinnamon. In addition, such a bush grows in Vietnam and Indonesia, only as a cultivated plant. However, in the wild does not occur.
Historical facts
For more than four and a half thousand years, this culture has been cultivated in China. People learned about this spice before cinnamon. Cassia was shipped from China to Egypt. She was used for mummification. In Israel, it is used as intended, as a spice. Europeans learned about Cassia back in the time of Alexander the Great. Her varieties are holly and Alexandrian.
How to understand that in front of you is cinnamon and cassia? What are the differences?
Cinnamon sticks, which are now sold in supermarkets, are cassia. This is not a hoax to buyers. After all, both of these products are considered cinnamon. Cassia can be distinguished from cinnamon in some ways. Now we will consider them. So, what are the differences between cinnamon and cassia?
The second sticks are less curled than cinnamon.
The producing country is China. Cinnamon is grown in Sri Lanka.
Cassia differs from cinnamon in value in a smaller direction.
In taste, cassia is slightly inferior to cinnamon. But it also has a pleasant spicy smell. It is sweet, but more burning, unlike cinnamon, which has a mild taste. Cinnamon and cassia differ in color. The second has a darker, more saturated color than the first. Cinnamon sticks are very fragile and loose. When exposed to powder. Cassia sticks are hard wood bark. To turn it into a powder, one has to work hard. You can determine the difference between cinnamon and cassia with iodine. Now we will tell you exactly how. Cassia contains a large amount of starch. A drop of iodine will color it in dark blue, and cinnamon in light blue.
Folk chinese medicine
In Chinese traditional medicine, alcoholic tincture of cassia is used against viruses, bacteria, and tubercle bacillus. Also, this herb is used for headaches, stomach pain, vomiting, pain with gastritis.
The harm and good of cassia
One of the drawbacks of cassia is the coumarin contained in it. It is contraindicated in large doses to humans. If the daily norm of coumarin is exceeded, headaches and dizziness may begin. With caution, cassia should be used for people suffering from kidney and liver diseases. In large doses, it can cause diarrhea, allergic skin irritations. An adult can use half a teaspoon of cassia per day, a child - two to three times less. It is undesirable to eat cassia constantly. Since the coumarin contained in it tends to accumulate in the body. Cassia and its preparations based on it are contraindicated during pregnancy, as they can cause abortion.
Now consider the beneficial properties of cassia. This plant helps improve appetite, improves blood flow. Cassia also has a laxative effect.
Losing weight. Reviews
The laxative effect allows the use of cassia for weight loss. Feedback from the application is only positive. Girls really get rid of a couple of extra pounds in a fairly short period of time.
Herbal tea for weight loss with cassia and mint effectively and gently relieves the body of toxins, toxins, helps to improve skin color, weight loss, and affects the intestines painlessly. To use such a drink should be a course, be sure to take a break of one to two months, if you need a second.
In cooking
In Chinese cuisine, spice is very polarity. This spice is used for cooking:
- flour products
- sweet foods,
- marinades,
- jams and preserves,
- for cooking meat,
- fruit salads,
- soups
- cocktails, mulled wine, drinks based on chocolate and cocoa.
Holly
Cassia acutifolia is a perennial bush of the legume family, also called senna. His homeland is India and Africa. The plant is cultivated in Central Asia, Pakistan, Egypt and Crimea. Sheets of this bush are harvested. Their collection takes place in August. Fruits ripening after flowering are rarely used.
Now we will consider what harm and benefit cassia leaves is.
Senna leaf has a laxative and diuretic property. Preparations based on cassia holly are used to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, skin diseases, edema, glaucoma.
Cassia-based drugs, methods of use
The drugs are as follows:
- Holly cassia extract, tablets (laxative). It should be taken twice a day, morning and evening, thirty minutes before meals, one or two tablets.
- Tea hemorrhoidal. A mixture of herbs. Pour one tablespoon of glasses with boiled hot water, let it brew, strain. Tea half a cup in the morning and evening.
- "Senadexin" - tablets, which include cassia holly. Take the drug in the evening, one or two tablets, washed down with water. "Senadexin" is taken once or in a course of one to two weeks as necessary. You need to take a break in admission for two weeks.
Harm and Benefit
What is the harm and benefit of cassia holly for the body? Decoctions from the leaf of the plant are advised to be used to stimulate appetite, improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, and also to treat hemorrhoids. Cassia essential oil has beneficial properties. It is recommended for stress, depression. Cassia oil lubricates the skin with insect bites. This contributes to quick healing. Unlike cassia broths, oil has an astringent effect. It is used to treat diarrhea. Oil is used as an antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory agent.
There are contraindications for use. Cassia and preparations based on it cannot be consumed constantly. Since the body becomes addicted to the action of grass. Then the treatment becomes ineffective. Senna leaf is contraindicated in case of diarrhea and intestinal inflammation.
Cassia of Alexandria. Description
Cassia Alexandria is a medicinal plant. It is also called the Alexandrian leaf. In contrast to cassia holly, not only sheets are used, but also fruits.
Based on it, modern pharmacology offers consumers powders, aqueous and alcoholic extracts, extracts and solid dosage forms.
The use of Cassia Alexandria
Preparations from the cassia of Alexandria, infusions and decoctions of it are used:
- with hemorrhoids, anal fissures,
- with some diseases of the liver and gall bladder,
- skin diseases
- conjunctivitis,
- purulent skin lesions, pyoderma.
It is not recommended to take tinctures and decoctions of Cassia Alexandria if there are exacerbations of the inflammatory processes of the intestine, during pregnancy, liver diseases, cystitis. When using cassia for weight loss, it should be alternated with other laxatives in order to achieve a better effect and prevent addiction.
Recipes for making infusion and decoction at home. Description, methods of application
First, consider the recipe for infusion. Pour one tablespoon of cassia leaf with a glass of hot water, let it brew for eight hours. After you need to strain. Take half a cup before bedtime.
Now consider the recipe for a decoction. Two tablespoons of the sheet pour a quarter liter of hot water. Then you should let it brew for thirty minutes in a water bath, then cool and strain. Dilute with hot water to the initial level, take a decoction of half a cup in the morning and evening.
Weight loss occurs due to improved bowel function, enhanced motor functions. It is important to remember that everything is good in moderation. Overdoing it with taking drugs, decoctions or infusions, you can get an upset stomach, abdominal pain. Before starting a course of treatment with cassia at home, you should consult your doctor.
Little conclusion
Now you know what harm and benefit cassia is for the body. We hope you find this information interesting.