''Mespilodaphne quixos'' is a species of

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

in the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

, native to

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. It is one of the South American trees with a cinnamon-like aroma and is used as a

spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

called ''ispinku'' in

Southern Quechua Southern Quechua (, ), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers. Besides Guaraní it ...

or ''ishpinku'' in

Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. Classification Kichwa belongs to the Nor ...

(Hispanicized spellings ''ishpingo, eshpingo''). It is native to lowland and foothill rainforests in the western

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

below 1000 meters elevation.

Growth

''Ispinku'' seeds have a diameter of almost 1 inch and grow in soil which is mildly acidic. It grows at an annual rate of roughly 6 inches for the first three years of its life. After flowering starts, the flowers are produced once every two years.

Use as a flavouring

The bark is used to produce 'Ecuadorian' (or 'American') cinnamon which bears some resemblance to common cinnamon (which also comes from a tree in this family). The tree is known in

Quechua languages Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral " Proto-Quechua" ...

as ''ispinku'', which specifically refers to the flowers, and more recently as ''Flor de Canela''. The taste of Ecuadorian cinnamon is thought to come from the presence of

methyl cinnamate Methyl cinnamate is the methyl ester of cinnamic acid and is a white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is found naturally in a variety of plants, including in fruits, like strawberry, and some culinary spices, such as Sichuan pe ...

and trans-cinnamaldehyde which are also found in the essential oils which come from the flower calices of the plant. Some reports show it has been used as a flavouring since Incaic times, and modern Ecuadorians still use this spice during general cooking and the production of food for rituals. Offerings to family ancestors for the Day of the Dead for example. These include food such as

colada morada Colada Morada is a drink that is part of Ecuador's gastronomic culture along with t'anta wawa bread dolls. It is a purple and thick liquid that is prepared with typical fruits of Ecuador, spices and corn flour. This drink is traditionally consu ...

(purple pudding) and beverages such as the alcoholic drink ''alajua'', both of which require the use of ''ispinku'' as a key ingredient.

Medicinal uses

The oils have previously been used in the traditional medicine of some Amazonian tribes for their anti-inflammatory properties and some peer-reviewed data also support this theory. Investigation of trans-cinnamaldehyde showed that it significantly reduced the production of NO by macrophages (cells of the immune system), which is something that normally occurs during inflammation. The same study of methyl cinnamate did not show this effect. It has also been shown that this oil can reduce the chance of blood clot formation by preventing

platelet Platelets or thrombocytes () are a part of blood whose function (along with the coagulation#Coagulation factors, coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping to form a thrombus, blood clot. Platelets have no ...

aggregation in the blood.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q89027922, from2=Q7076640 Lauraceae Flora of Colombia Flora of Ecuador Flora of Peru Plants described in 1793 Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck