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cinnamon

One of the oldest known spices, cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible and in Sanskrit writings. Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka and comes from the tropical evergreen laurel tree, Cinnamomum zeylanicum. The spice is the tree bark, rolled into sticks, quills or ground to powder. Known as "true cinnamon" as opposed to Cassia (Cinnamomum cassia) which is commonly used as "cinnamon" in the United States.

Ground cinnamon enhances many curries and meat stews especially those made with lamb. It can also be used in cakes, puddings, breads and stewed fruits.

Cinnamon sticks are often used in hot drinks such as mulled wine , hot chocolate and coffee to add just that extra zing on a cold night.

Cinnamon has many uses besides being a condiment, the oils of the leaves, bark and roots add their scent and flavor to incense and perfumes. The leaf oil can used in tonics, antiseptics, and in remedies for intestinal gas, nausea, colds, and hypertension.

Warning: The oils should be avoided during pregnancy, since they have been linked to miscarriages.

As a side note: it's not cost-effective for the major pharmaceutical companies to fund research to determine the effectiveness of naturally occurring substances. Since medical research is extremely expensive, and since naturally occurring pharmacological substances are very difficult to patent and trivial to reproduce, private sources do not tend to fund much research into medicinal uses of normal herbs. It's wise to be skeptical about any claims for herbal remedies, of course, but one can't assume that those claims are entirely invalid either, in the absence of any empirical evidence to refute them.