Sri Lanka is experimenting on the medicinal power of the well-known spice as a treatment for diabetes, an official said on Tuesday.

A team from the medicle faculty of the Peradeniya University has been experimenting on the healing power of cinnamon as a treatment for diabetes and cholesterol, says D.B.T. Wijeratne, additional secretary of the Agriculture Ministry.

"Cinnamon is already being used as a functional food," and it would be a naturalmedical product once the experiments are successful, quoting Wijeratne who is also a food scientist Xinhua reported.

Started in 2011, the government has allocated 70,000 U.S. dollars for the experiment and he said that it is a long process where it would be first tested with the animals.

"Before sending to the world market we have to do a proper experiment first with the animal and second with the human," Wijeratne said.

Sri Lanka commands more than 85 percent of the world market share for real cinnamon and it brought in revenue of 85 million U. S. dollars in exports in 2010, Xinhua further said.