American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

CINNAMON. Cinnamomum zeylanicum.
Synonyms—Cinnamon bark, Ceylon cinnamon.
CONSTITUENTS—
Volatile oil, tannin, sugar, mannit, starch mucilage.
PREPARATIONS—
Tinctura cinnamomi, tincture of cinnamon Dose, from a half to two
drams.
Specific cinnamon. Dose, from ten to thirty Minims.
Physiological Action—This agent has long been used as a carminative
and local gastric stimulant. It has a mild influence which is grateful and
soothing. It has been used to check nausea and vomiting and to relieve
flatulence.
Its rare properties have been overlooked by the profession and it has been
assigned to its exact position by the masses of the people. Midwives and
old nurses have long given a strong infusion of cinnamon to control
postpartum hemorrhage, and it has been advised in “nose-bleed” and in
flooding during miscarriage and in menorrhagia. It has been useful in
domestic practice, also in diarrhoea and dysentery.
Therapy—Cinnamon, in the experience of the writer, is a hemostatic of
much power and is positively reliable in all passive hemorrhages. It is not
advisable to combine it with the usual astringents, as ergot, geranium or
epilobium, but it acts in perfect harmony with erigeron and to a certain
extent with turpentine. German authorities claim that as soon as the
menses or any uterine hemorrhage becomes excessive and produces
exhaustion or causes alarm the decoction should be administered freely.
It works to a better advantage in hemorrhage due to atonic conditions of
the non-gravid womb, or where there is muscular relaxation, or a general
flaccid state of the womb after delivery.
It certainly restores tone to the uterine muscular structure and induces
tonic contraction. It will also, Hale says, moderate hemorrhage not
dependent on plethora, anemia or organic uterine disease. In some
cases, during labor, it promotes the normal labor pains and materially
increases uterine contraction, and prevents post-partum hemorrhage.
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 135