The genus Cinnamomum

xiv Preface
When we approached the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research
(Currently the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI)) its Director General Dr. WOB
Wijesekera readily agreed to author the various chapters on Sri Lankan Cinnamon.
We record here our deep appreciation to ITI and all the Scientists who wrote the chapters
included in this volume on Ceylon cinnamon. We also received the collaboration of the
Research Institute for Spices and Medicinal Plants of Indonesia and of the IEBR,
Vietnam, in writing chapters on Indonesian and Chinese cassia respectively.
This volume contains fifteen chapters covering all aspects of cinnamon, camphor and
on various cassia types and a chapter on other useful species on which information is
available. Chapters on botany and crop improvement, economics and marketing,
pharmacology and toxicology and end uses are common for both cinnamon and cassia.
We have made sincere efforts to collect and collate as much information as we possibly
could. This is the first monograph on cinnamon and cassia and we hope that this will
remain as the main reference work on these sensational spices for many years to come.
We hope that this volume will be useful to students and research workers in the areas
of botany, economic botany, ethnobotany, horticulture, agriculture and allied fields, as
well as to exporters, processors, planters and to all those who are interested in this spice
of life.
Editors