Clove

Clove
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Myrtales Family: Myrtaceae Genus: Syzygium Species: S. aromaticum
Binomial name
Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merrill & Perry

A single dried clove flower bud

Clove is the common name for a small, tropical evergreen tree, Syzygium aromaticum (syn. Eugenia aromaticum or Eugenia caryophyllata) and for the aromatic, dried, unopened flower buds of this tree, which are used as a spice. The term also is used simply as the name of the spice, and often in the plural as "cloves." In another sense of the term, clove also can mean one section of a separable bulb, such as a clove of garlic.

Cloves are on eof the world's most important, popular, and useful spices, with historical purpose from the beginning of the spice trade. ... culinary, medicinal, perfume, essential oil

and used as a spice in cuisine all over the world.

Description

The clove tree is in the Myrtle family Myrtaceae, a taxon of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. The family Myrtaceae has at least 3000 species distributed in 130-150 genera, including such well-known representatives as myrtle, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus. All species are woody, with essential oils, and have flower parts in multiples of four or five. The flowers have a base number of five petals, though in several genera the petals are minute or absent. The stamens are usually very conspicuous, brightly colored and numerous. The leaves are evergreen, alternate to mostly opposite, simple, and usually with an entire (not toothed) margin. One notable character of the family is that the phloem is located on both sides of the xylem, not just outside as in most other plants.

The clove tree, Syzygium aromaticum, is a conical evergreen that grows to a height ranging from 10-20 meters, having large oval leaves and crimson flowers in numerous groups of terminal clusters. The flower buds are at first of a pale color and gradually become green, after which they develop into a reddish brown or bright red, when they are ready for collecting. Cloves are harvested when 1.5-2 centimeters (cm) long, and consist of a long calyx, terminating in four spreading sepals, and four unopened petals that form a small ball in the center. The flower buds are strongly aromatic and a flavor that can be described as hot and pungent.

Cloves are believed to be native to the Makuku Islands (Moluccas), an archipelago in Indonesia historically known as the "Spice Islands." The name "clove" derives from French clou, a nail, as the buds vaguely resemble small irregular nails in shape. Cloves are harvested primarily in Zanzibar, Indonesia and Madagascar; it is also grown in Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.

Cloves are picked by hand and dried, and may be sold whole or ground, and the essential oil is used as well. They are produced in such countries as Indonesia, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mauritius, as well as the West Indies.

Active compounds

The compound responsible for the clove's aroma is eugenol. It is the main component in the essential oil extracted from cloves, comprising 72 percent to 90 percent. Eugenol has pronounced antiseptic and anesthetic properties, and is used as a germicide and in mouthwashes.

Other important constituents include essential oils acetyl eugenol, beta-caryophylline, and vanillin, as well as crategolic acid, tannins, gallotannic acid, methyl salicylate (painkiller), several sesquiterpenes, the flavanoids eugenin, kaempferol, rhamnetin, and eugenitin, and such triterpenoids as oleanolic acid, stigmasterol and campesterol. (Bensky et al. 2004).

Uses

Dried cloves

Cloves are used as a culinary spice for flavoring a variety of foods, while the essential oil (clove oil or oil of cloves) is used for such purposes as in flavorings (such as in medicines or synthetic vanilla), and in perfume. Cloves are used widely for perfuming the air and are an important incense material in Chinese and Japanese culture. They also are employed medicinally, including as a natural analgesic and antiseptic.

Culinary use

Cloves can be used in cooking either whole or in a ground form, and flavor a variety of foods, from sweet to savory (Herbst 2001). They often are used as a flavoring for ketchup and sauces. However, cloves tend to be extremely strong and typically are used sparingly in cuisine. The spice also smoked in a type of cigarettes locally known as kretek in Indonesia.

Cloves have historically been used in Indian cuisine (both North Indian and South Indian) as well as in Mexican cuisine, where it is often paired together with cumin and canela (cinnamon) (Dorenburg and Page 2003). In the north Indian cuisine, it is used in almost every sauce or side dish made, mostly ground up along with other spices. They are also a key ingredient in tea along with green cardamoms. In the south Indian cuisine, it finds extensive use in the biryani dish (similar to the pilaf, but with the addition of local spice taste), and is normally added whole to enhance the presentation and flavor of the rice.

Oil of cloves

Oil of cloves, also known as Clove oil, is an essential oil from the clove plant, Syzygium aromaticum.

• CAS number: 8015-98-2

It is a natural analgaesic and antiseptic used primarily in dentistry for its main ingredient eugenol. It can also be purchased in pharmacies over the counter, as a home remedy for dental pain relief, mainly toothache; it is also often found in the aromatherapy section of health food stores. The oil produced by cloves can be used in many things from flavouring medicine to remedies for bronchitis, the common cold, a cough, fever, sore throat and tending to infections. The main oil-producing countries are Madagascar and Indonesia.

There are three types of clove oil:

• Bud oil is derived form the flower-buds of S.aromaticum. It consists of 60-90% eugenol, eugenyl acetate, caryophyllene and other minor constituents.
• Leaf oil is derived from the leaves of S.aromaticum. It consists of 82-88% eugenol with little or no eugenyl acetate, and minor constituents.
• Stem oil is derived from the twigs of S.aromaticum. It consists of 90-95% eugenol, with other minor constituents.

Oral use

Oil of cloves is known best for its anaesthetic properties. It is widely reported to be effective, and prior to the availability of safe, approved topical anaesthetic drugs, was used by some dentists.

Clove oil is often used to relieve pain caused by dry socket, a possible complication of tooth extraction.

Clove oil has an unpleasant taste, so it is advised to prevent the oil from touching the tongue.

It is considered safe in very small quantities (<1500 p.p.m.) as a food additive. However, clove oil is toxic to human cells. If ingested in sufficient quantity or injected, it has been shown to cause life-threatening complications, including Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Fulminant Hepatic (Liver) Failure, and Central Nervous System Depression; the lethal oral dose is 3.752 g per kg body weight

Topical use

When applied to stop a toothache, it is best done with a cotton swab, applied directly to the side of the tooth, or directly on to the tooth, on the instance if a hole is present, to allow for the oil to absorb into the affected area.

Other uses

It is also used for anesthetizing and in higher doses euthanizing fish.

Clove oil is also used in an all natural herbicide called "Perfectly Natural Weed & Grass Killer". The clove oil is the only active ingredient, and it is very effective at killing many types of plants.

Clove oil has uses for antimicrobial and antifungal. It can be used for acne, warts, scars and parasites.

Research has shown that clove oil is an effective mosquito repellent.

Clove oil is also used in oil painting. The anti-oxidant effects of the eugenol delays the drying (oxidation) of the drying oils (linseed, safflower, poppy, walnut) in the paint on the palette. A drop per paint 'nut' is usually added. Alternatively, the palette can be covered, with a small amount of clove oil applied to the inside of the cover to allow the clove oil to disperse, preventing the paint from reacting with the oxygen within the cover. This method has the advantage of slowing the drying of the paints once they are applied to the painting.

Medicinal uses

Cloves are used in Ayurveda called Lavang in India, Chinese medicine (Ravi & Jagdish) and western herbalism and dentistry where the essential oil is used as an anodyne (painkiller) for dental emergencies. Cloves are used as a carminative, to increase hydrochloric acid in the stomach and to improve peristalsis. Cloves are also said to be a natural antihelmintic. The essential oil is used in aromatherapy when stimulation and warming is needed, especially for digestive problems. Topical application over the stomach or abdomen will warm the digestive tract.

In Chinese medicine cloves or ding xiang are considered acrid, warm and aromatic, entering the kidney, spleen and stomach meridians, and are notable in their ability to warm the middle, direct stomach qi downward, to treat hiccough and to fortify the kidney yang. Because the herb is so warming it is contraindicated in any persons with fire symptoms and according to classical sources should not be used for anything except cold from yang deficiency. As such it is used in formulas for impotence or clear vaginal discharge from yang deficiency, for morning sickness together with ginseng and patchouli, or for vomiting and diarrhea due to spleen and stomach coldness. This would translate to hypochlorhydria.

Ayurvedic herbalist K.P. Khalsa, RH (AHG), uses cloves internally as a tea and topically as an oil for hypotonic muscles, including for multiple sclerosis. This is also found in Tibetan medicine. Ayurvedic herbalist Alan Tilotson, RH (AHG) suggests avoiding more than occasional use of cloves internally in the presence of pitta inflammation such as is found in acute flares of autoimmune diseases.

In West Africa, the Yorubas use cloves infused in water as a treatment for stomach upsets, vomitting and diarrhoea.The infusion is called Ogun Jedi-jedi.

Toxicity

Large amounts should be avoided in pregnancy. ^{[citation needed]} Cloves can be irritating to the gastrointestinal tract, and should be avoided by people with gastric ulcers, colitis, or irritable bowel syndrome. In overdoses, cloves can cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. ^{[citation needed]} Severe cases can lead to changes in liver function, dyspnea, loss of consciousness, hallucination, and even death. The internal use of the essential oil should be restricted to 3 drops per day for an adult as excessive use can cause severe kidney damage. ^{[citation needed]}

History

Until modern times, cloves grew only on a few islands in the Maluku Islands (historically called the Spice Islands), including Bacan, Makian, Moti, Ternate, and Tidore. Nevertheless, they found their way west to the Middle East and Europe well before the first century CE. Archeologists found cloves within a ceramic vessel in Syria along with evidence dating the find to within a few years of 1721 B.C.E.

Cloves, along with nutmeg and pepper, were highly prized in Roman times, and Pliny the Elder once famously complained that "there is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of fifty million sesterces". Cloves were traded by Arabs during the Middle Ages in the profitable Indian Ocean trade. In the late fifteenth century, Portugal took over the Indian Ocean trade, including cloves, due to the Treaty of Tordesillas with Spain and a separate treaty with the sultan of Ternate. The Portuguese brought large quantities of cloves to Europe, mainly from the Maluku Islands. Clove was then one of the most valuable spices, a kg costing around 7 g of gold^{[citation needed]}.

The trade later became dominated by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. With great difficulty the French succeeded in introducing the clove tree into Mauritius in the year 1770; subsequently their cultivation was introduced into Guiana, Brazil, most of the West Indies, and Zanzibar, where the majority of cloves are grown today.

In Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, cloves were worth at least their weight in gold, due to the high price of importing them.^{[citation needed]}

The clove has become a commercial 'success', with products including clove drops being released and enjoyed by die-hard clove fans.

Clove output in 2005

According to FAO, Indonesia produced almost 80% of the world's clove output in 2005 followed at a distance by Madagascar and Tanzania.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

>Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, Third Edition by Dan Bensky, Steven Clavey, Erich Stoger, and Andrew Gamble. 2004</ref>

herbst 2001

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