Eugenia, Clove, Ding Xiang 丁香

Caryophyllatus aromaticus; Lavanga (Ayurveda)
Ding Xiang (TCM)
Li Shi (Tibetan)
Qaranful (Unani)
Anthophyllum: Mother Cloves: Mature Cloves
Krauterbuch, Lonitzer, 1578
Medical Botany, Woodville, Hooker, Vol. 3, 1832
Botanische wandplaten, 1904–1914

Anthophyllum or 'Mother Clove'
Notes on Pharmacognosy, Otto Augustus Wall, 1902
Above: Clove (Adam, 2016)
1, Zanzibar Cloves.  2, Amboyna Cloves.  3, Penang Cloves.
Squibb's Atlas of the Official Drugs, Mansfield, 1919

Uses:
1. Stops Wind, Opens Obstructions, Eases Pain:
-important medicine for Wind diseases: it courses and regulates the Qi, penetrating turbidity and settling disordered Qi

2. Warms the Stomach, Clears Cold:
-Hiccup, Vomiting, Dyspepsia, Diarrhea, Nausea

3. Warms the Lungs, clears Cold Phlegm, stops Cough:
-Cough, Bronchitis

4. Warms the Kidneys, clears Cold and Damp:
-Edema, chronic Nephritis, Urinary disorders, Arthritis

5. Resists Poison:
-Colds, Influenza, Infectious Diseases

6. Kills Worms:
-especially Round- and Tape-worm

7. Externally:
-oil is applied to Toothache, or a clove can be placed over the gum
-oil is much used in oils, liniments, plasters for Joint Pain, Arthritis, Rheumatism, Bursitis, Neuralgia and degeneration of the bones
-a few Cloves boiled in sesame oil, and three drops of the warm oil dropped into the ear is effective for Earache and Tinnitus.
-Clove dipped in water and applied to a stye gives great relief
-powdered Clove is applied to cracked Nipples
-the oil is applied to Tinea and Ringworm


Main Combinations:
Clove & Nutmeg
Cinnamon, Clove & Nutmeg

1. Indigestion, Clove with Ginger, Ajowan and Rock Salt (Ayurveda)
2. Indigestion, Diarrhea, Colic, Anorexia; Fevers (from Wind and Phlegm); Cough, Whooping Cough, Asthma, Bronchitis; and Lumbago: combine Clove with Ginger, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Long Pepper (as in Lavangadi Churna of Ayurveda)
3. Wind diseases, combine Clove with Aloeswood, Nutmeg, Chebulic Myrobalan, Costus, Frankincense, Calamus, Long Pepper and Tabasheer (as in Clove 22 of Tibetan Medicine)
4. Lung Heat, inflammation and pain of the Lungs, Cough, sore Throat, Hoarseness, combine Clove with Tabasheer, Gentian, Costus, Chebulic Myrobalan and Licorice (as in Clove 6 of Tibetan Medicine)
5. Bronchial Asthma, Clove with Raisins, Cyperus, Pomegranate fruit, Safflower and Cinnamon (as in Clove 11, Tibetan Medicine)
6. Cold, weak Kidneys, combine Clove with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
7. Toothache:
i. Clove with Camphor topically for Toothache
ii. Clove with Sichuan Pepper, topically
iii. Dentists used Clove oil with 5–10% cocaine added as a topical anaesthetic

Major Formulas
Aromatic Clove Powder (Aromaticum Caryophyllatum) (Mesue)
Electuary of Clove and Costus (Caryocostinum)
Aromatic Powder (Mesue)
Diacameron Minus (Nicholas)

Powder of Clove (Ayurveda)
Six Excellent Medicines (Tibetan Medicine)
Clove 6 (Li shi drug pa) (Tibetan Medicine)
Clove 22 (Tibetan Medicine)


Cautions:
Not used in Yin deficient Heat

Main Preparations used:
Confection, Distilled Water, Distilled Oil, Extract
History
'The Greek name [?] is supposed to refer to the ball-like petals of the bud, which, as above described, might be compared to a small nut. But the name is very variably written, as ...  whence it becomes probable that it is not really Greek, but an Asiatic word hellenized.

Cloves have been long known to the Chinese. Mr. Mayers, late Chinese Secretary to the British Legation at Pekin, has communicated to us the interesting fact that they are mentioned by several Chinese writers as in use under the Han dynasty, B.C. 266 to A.D. 220, during which period it was customary for the officers of the court to hold the spice in the mouth before addressing the sovereign, in order that their breath might have an agreeable odour.

The Sanskrit name is "Lavanga," whence the vernacular Hindustani "Laung."

The first European author to mention Caryophyllon is Pliny, who describes it, after pepper, as a grain resembling that spice but longer and more brittle, produced in India, and imported for the sake of its odour. It is doubtful whether this description really refers to cloves.

By the 4th century, cloves must have become well known in Europe, if credence can be placed in a remarkable record preserved by Vignoli, which states that the emperor Constantine presented to St. Silvester, bishop of Rome, A.D. 314-335, numerous vessels of gold and silver, incense and spices, among which last were 150 pounds of Cloves— a vast quantity for the period.

Kosmas Indicopleustes," in his Topographia Christiana wriiten about A.D. 547, states in the account of Taprobane (Ceylon) that silk, aloes [-wood], cloves and sandal wood, besides other productions, are imported thither from China, and other emporia, and transmitted to distant regions. Alexander Trallianus, who was a friend of Kosmos and a pupil of his father, prescribed in several receipts 5 or 8 cloves, from which fact it may be inferred that at his time (at Rome) cloves were a very rare article. A century later, Paulus Aegineta distinctly described cloves as Caryophyllon— ex India, veluti fiores cujmdam arboris ... odorati, acres ... and much used for a condiment and in medicine.

In the beginning of the 8th century, the same spice is noticed by Benedictus Crispus, archbishop of Milan, who calls it Cariophyllus ater; and in A.D. 716, it is enumerated with other commodities in the diploma granted by Chilperic II. to the monastery of Corbie in Normandy.

We find cloves among the wares on which duty was levied at Aeon (the modern Acre) in Palestine at the end of the 12th century, at which period that city was a great emporium of Mediterranean trade. They are likewise enumerated in the tariff of Marseilles of A.D. 1228, in that of Barcelona of 1252 and of Paris, 1296.

These facts show that the spice was a regular object of commerce at this period. But it was very costly: the Household Book of the  Countess of Leicester, A.D. 1265, gives its price as 10s. to 12s. per lb., exactly the same as that of saffron. Several other examples of the high cost
of the spice might be adduced.

Of the place of growth of cloves, the first distinct notice seems to be that of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdudbah, A.D. 869-885, who names the spice, with cocoa-nuts, sugar, and sandal-wood as produced in Java. Doubtless he was misinformed, for the clove-tree had not come so far west at that period. Marco Polo made the same mistake four centuries later : finding the spice in Java, he supposed it the growth of the island.

Nicolo Conti, a Venetian merchant who lived from A.D. 1424 to 1448 in the Indian Archipelago, learned that cloves are brought to Java from the island of Banda, fifteen days' sail further east. With the arrival of the Portuguese at the commencement of the 16th century, more accurate accounts of the Spice Islands began to reach Europe; and Pigafetta, the companion of Magellan, gave a very good description of the clove-tree as he observed it in 1521.

The Portuguese had the principal share in the clove trade for nearly a century. In 1605 they were expelled by the Dutch, who took exclusive possession of the Moluccas and adopted extraordinary measures for keeping the traffic in their own hands. Yet notwithstanding this, large supplies of cloves reached England direct. In 1609 a ship of the East India Company called the Consent arrived with 112,000 lb, the duty on which amounted to £1400 and the impost to as much more. The spice ungarbled was sold at 5s. 6d. and 5s. 9d. per lb.— of course, in bond.

To effect their purpose, the Dutch endeavoured to extirpate the clove-tree from its native islands, and even instituted periodical
expeditions for the purpose of destroying any young trees that might have accidentally sprung up. This policy, the object of which was to confine the growth of the spice to a group of small islands of which Amboyna is the largest, has but very recently been abandoned : though the cultivation of the spice was free in all other localities, the clove parks of the Amboyna islands remained the property of the Dutch Government. The original Moluccas or Clove Islands now produce no cloves at all.

The enterprise of Poivre, the French governor of Mauritius and Bourbon, so far eluded the vigilance of the Dutch, that both clove and nutmeg-trees were introduced into those islands in the year 1770. The clove-tree was carried thence to Cayenne in 1793, and to Zanzibar about the end of the century.

Crawfurd, in an excellent article of which we have made free use, aptly remarks that it is difficult to understand how the clove first came to the notice of foreign nations, considering the well- ascertained fact that it has never been used as a condiment or in any other way by the inhabitants of the islands of which it is a native. We may observe however that there were some singular superstitions among the islanders with regard to the so-called Royal Clove, a tree of which on the island of Makiyan was long supposed to be unique'. (Pharmacographia, Fluckiger & Hanbury, 1879
Other Parts of Clove
1. Clove Stalks— Festucoelvel Stipites Caryophylli, in French Griffes de Girofle, in German Selkenstiele, were an article of import into Europe during the middle ages, when they were chiefly known by their low Latin name of fusti, or the Italian bastaroni. Thus under the statutes of Pisa, A.D. 1305, duty was levied not only on cloves (garofali), but also on Folia et fusti garofalorum. Pegolotti a little later names both as being articles of trade at Constantinople. Clove Leaves are enumerated as an import into Palestine in the 12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the drugs sold at Frankfort about the year 1450; we are not aware that they are used in modern times.

As to Clove Stalks, they are still a considerable object of trade, especially from Zanzibar, where they are called by the natives Vikunia. They taste tolerably aromatic, and yield 4 to 6.4 per cent. of volatile levogyre oil; they are used for adulterating the Ground Cloves sold by grocers. Such an admixture may be detected by the microscope, especially if the powder after treatment with potash be examined in glycerin. If clove stalks have been ground, thick-walled or stone-cells will be found in the powder; such cells do not occur in cloves. Powdered allspice is
also an adulterant of powdered cloves; it also contains stone-cells, but in addition numerous starch-granules which are entirely wanting in cloves.

2. Mother Cloves, Anthophylli— are the fruits of the clove-tree, and are ovate-oblong berries about an inch in length and much less rich in essential oil than cloves. Though occasionally seen in the London drug sales in some quantity, they are not an article of regular import.

As they contain very large starch-granules, their presence as an adulteration of ground cloves would be revealed by the microscope.

3. Royal Cloves— Under this name or Caryophyllum regium, a
curious monstrosity of the clove was formerly held in the highest reputation, on account of its rarity and the strange stories told respecting it. Specimens in our possession show it to be a very small clove, distinguished by an abnormal number of sepals and large bracts at the base of the calyx-tube, the corolla and internal organs being imperfectly developed. (Pharmacographia, Fluckiger & Hanbury, 1879)