Syzygium aromaticum L.
Family : Mertaceae
Products and Uses
Clove is largely used as dried whole buds. Ground clove is used for curry mixtures and clove oil is used for flavoring foods and in pharmaceutical perfumery industry. Clove oil either can be colourless or yellow. If exposed to sunlight it may turn into dark colour. Cloves are used either whole or ground to provideflavor for both sweet and savory foods in pickling and the production of sauces and ketchups. In medicine it is valued as a carminative, aromatic and stimulant. It is being used in cigarette industry as a flavoring agent. Clove oil is used in perfumes, in dentistry and a clearing agent in microscopy.
Medicinal and Chemical Properties
Eugenol comprises 72-90% of the essential oil extracted from cloves and the compound is most responsible
for the aroma of cloves. Other important essential oil constituents of clove oil include acetyl eugenol, beta-caryophyllene and vanillin, crategolic acid, gallotannic acid, methyl salicylate, eugenin, kaempferol,rhammentin, eugenitin, oleanolic acid, sigmasterol and campesterol. Clove is used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, western herbalism and in the dentistry, where the essential oil is traditionally used as an anodyne (painkiller) for dental emergencies. Cloves have carminative effect to increase hydrochloric acid in the stomach and to improve peristalsis. Clove oil is used in various skin disorders like acne, pimples etc. and also used in skin burns , skin irritation and sensitiveness of skin.
