Cinnamon

You might be surprised to learn that the history of Cinnamon goes far back--it was one of the first trade spices.

Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible. It was one of the combination of ingredients used in making the holy anointing oil for the tabernacle [quoting from Exodus 30:22-25]:

Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses saying,

Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,

[snip]

And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.

The ointment or oil was used to anoint the tabernacle and many additional parts of the earliest altar.

There is more information in the passage quoted above: as an ingredient it is called "an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary". It is very likely that at the time of writing this passage cinnamon was also considered a kind of medicine used by apothecaries.

In various ancient writings we learn that cinnamon was used as a treatment for diabetes, cinnamon bark used by the Chinese for calming stomach unrest, cinnamon bark used in Indian ayuvedic medicine for childbirth labor, and some people used cinnamon to increase blood circulation and create a warm feeling.