Plant stem stems are asparagus, bamboo shoots, cactus pads or nopalitos, kohlrabi, and water chestnut. The spice, cinnamon is bark from a tree trunk. Gum arabic is an important food additive obtained from the trunks of "Acacia senegal" trees. Chicle, the main ingredient in chewing gum, is obtained from trunks of the chicle tree. Medicines obtained from stems include quinine from the bark of cinchona trees, camphor distilled from wood of a tree in the same genus that provides cinnamon, and the muscle relaxant curare from the bark of tropical vines. Wood is used in thousands of ways, e.g. buildings, furniture, boats,
Bark bread bark is the only part of a tree trunk that is actually edible, the remaining bark and wood is made up of cellulose which animals, including humans, cannot digest. The dried and ground inner bark was added in proportions like 1/4th to 1/3rd "bark flour" to the remaining grain flour. Erik Pontoppidan, the Bishop of Bergen, Norway, in the mid 18th century, recommended using elm, as it helped the often crumbly bark bread hold together better. The bark will, however, add a rather bitter taste to the bread, and give particularly white bread an unappetizing grey-green hue. Another problem is