Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice made from the dried inner bark of trees in the genus Cinnamomum, most prized in its true form, Cinnamomum verum, native to Sri Lanka and the Malabar coast of South India. Cinnamon was among the most valuable commodities of the ancient long-distance spice trade, reaching ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome by routes that traders deliberately obscured to protect their monopoly and markup, giving rise to fanciful ancient accounts of its origin. Its high value and remote true source made cinnamon, alongside pepper and other spices, a driver of the medieval and early modern spice trade that connected South Asia to Europe and, eventually, motivated the European voyages of exploration that opened direct sea routes to the spice-producing regions of Asia. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/