Twak

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Dalchini

What the texts say Twak does

• Deepana — kindles digestion (appetiser)
• Pachana — digests ama (digestive)
• Mukhashodhana — cleans the mouth
• Kaphaghna — pacifies kapha
• Vatahara — pacifies vata
• Hridya — good for the heart

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Mouth or stomach irritation
• Burning sensation
• Contact reaction in the mouth from the oil

Avoid or ask first: Existing liver disease, in medicinal quantity.; Conditions aggravated by ushna and tikshna dravya.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Cinnamomum verum, true cinnamon. Cassia is a different bark and carries far more coumarin.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Katu, tikta and madhura with ushna virya and katu vipaka.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Tanutwak means thin bark and is the identifying feature: true cinnamon peels in fine papery layers that roll into a fragile quill, while cassia is a single thick hard piece. The paryaya is a field test.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

Most cinnamon sold in the world is not this plant. Cassia — Cinnamomum cassia and related species — is cheaper, thicker, harder, and is what is usually meant by cinnamon in the trade outside Sri Lanka. It is not a harmless substitution: cassia carries far more coumarin, which is the subject of the warning below. The field test is the one the paryaya gives: true cinnamon is thin, papery and rolls in many layers; cassia is a single thick curl that snaps.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Cinnamomum zeylanicum is a synonym of this species. The distinction from cassia, Cinnamomum cassia, is not academic and is the most consequential thing in this entry; it is set out in the safety section.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Cinnamomum verum: verum means TRUE cinnamon, and the epithet exists precisely to separate it from cassia. If a bark is sold as cinnamon and is not Cinnamomum verum, the Latin has already told you.

Twak is named among the four aromatics of Chaturjata in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the bark does in a body.

Constituents. The bark carries an essential oil rich in cinnamaldehyde. It also carries coumarin — in small amounts in true cinnamon and in much larger amounts in cassia, which is the whole of the problem described below.

Grown as a crop: how to grow cinnamon, from sowing to harvest, in Laisha's grow guides.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.