|
|
|
 |
I
N
D
I
A
N
M
E
D
I
C
I
N
A
L
P
L
A
N
T
S
Syzygium aromaticum
Syzygium aromaticum Merrill & Perry (= Eugenia caryophyllata Thunb.), cloves, Myrtaceae, is one of the very important spices of India, with a long history of international trade. It is a foreign exchange earner.
Clove trees are indigenous only to some of the Moluccas, but are now widely cultivated in the Islands of Zanzibar, Madagascar, Pemba and Sri Lanka and to some extent in Indonesia and India.
The unopened, sun dried flower buds (Syzygium aromaticum1) constitute the expensive commercial product cloves (Syzygium aromaticum2), from which the pungent and strong smelling clove oil, a combination of essential oils, 92 per cent of which is eugenol, is extracted. Stems and leaves also yield the oil, but inferior both qualitatively and quantitatively to that of cloves. Madagascar is the world’s dominant supplier of clove oil.
Cloves are widely used as a table spice or flavouring agent of a variety of food items, confectionery, perfumery, tooth-paste, tobacco, etc.
Both cloves and clove oil are used as a stimulant, carminative, in dyspepsia and gastric irritation. Clove oil is a local analgesic, rubefacient, counter-irritant and internally antispasmodic. The most popular use of cloves and clove oil is in treating tooth cavities and toothache.
The synthetic version of clove oil has not diminished the commercial importance of cloves or the natural oil.