Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) of commerce is the dried bark of the plant cinnamon. The spice is light brown in colour and has a delicately fragrant aroma and warm, sweet flavour. It is lighter in colour and milder in flavour than the other related species. In Egypt, it was sought for embalming and witchcraft; in medieval Europe for religious rites and as flavouring. References to cinnamon are plenty throughout the Old Testament in the Bible. Later it was the most profitable spice in the Dutch East India Company trade. Commercial part of this tree spice is bark and leaf. Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and Myanmar (Burma) and also cultivated in South America and the West Indies.