Components of Clove

Records of the culinary and medicinal uses of clove date back 2,000 years to China's Han Dynasty. Europe has known it as a culinary herb since the fourth century A.D. Indigenous to the Spice Islands of Indonesia, it is a tropical plant. The major constituents of its volatile oil is eugenol and other complex organic chemicals.

Components

• Clove is the immature flower bud of the clove plant that is harvested and processed for culinary and medicinal use. The young bud is pink in color and then darkens to a fiery red, at which point it is harvested and dried turning a deep reddish brown. The small bud is composed of gums (tacky, thickening agents often used in pharmaceuticals), tannins (found in most plants and typically used for converting animal hides into leather) and volatile oil (a complex of organic chemicals found in aromatic plants). The volatile oil of the clove is comprised of eugenol (85%), acetyl eugenol, methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil, found in many plants), pinen (a hydrocarbon, largely found in pine oil) and vanillin (crystallin component of vanilla). The active ingredients of clove oil are eugenol and acetyl eugenol.

Active Ingredients

• Eugenol, a strong antiseptic and a bactericide (i.e., it treats infections and kills bacteria), is the major compound constituent and the most important component of volatile clove oil. A potent anesthetic, it helps in numbing pain and is used for analgesic pain relief particularly for toothaches and dental problems. Acetyl eugenol acts as an anti-spasmodic and helps relieve muscle spasms. The oil is applied topically or is taken internally for muscle spasms such as cough.

Culinary Usage

• The whole clove or a ground powder is used in cooking throughout the world. Once powdered, the herb quickly looses much of its flavor so it is best to use the cloves whole or grind into a powder when ready for use. Pungent and aromatic, clove is often used in cooking meat, as a pickling spice, or to flavor soups, stews, pies and quick breads.

Medicinal Usage

• Medicinally, clove can be ingested whole or powdered, boiled into a tea, or pressed into an oil for topical application or ingestion. Traditional herbal medicine, particularly from China and India, has used clove to treat a number of ailments, including athlete's foot, toothache, parasites, infection, acne, gum disease, diarrhea, colic, fungal infection, cough and nausea.