Fragrant Flowers & Cavity-Curing Gumdrops - Clove
This week on the show we wanted to spice it up a bit, something you’re probably still savoring this season- clove.
Clove, or Syzygium aromaticum is a member of the myrtaceae or myrtle family, with famous family members like eucalyptus, guava, and bay rum trees. All members of this family tend to be mid-sized evergreen trees and shrubs with flower parts growing in multiples of 4 or 5. They usually are very fragrant, and have opposite, simple leaves, and flowers with very prominent stamens and small, easy to miss petals.
Clove is certainly no exception to this. In fact, the spice we all know and love is actually the dried up flowers from the tree. Native to the Maluku Islands - now part of indonesia, these trees stand at about 296-36 feet tall- 8-10 meters for my non-american pals, with smooth light brown bark, large simple leaves, and flowers that change from a light green to a deep crimson as they mature.
They prefer warm, tropical climates with rich soil and plenty of light. They are pretty sensitive to the cold, so if you wanted to grow this guy on your own, you’d need to do it in a greenhouse for the most part! As far as pests and diseases go, they are susceptible to eucalyptus canker ( think of it like an infected cut- Canker is one of the gnarliest plant issues in my opinion- I would take mealy bugs over it any day) and Sumatra disease, which is a bacterial infection that kills trees from the top down. It can only be stopped or slowed by giving the plant an injection of antibiotics, but even then- it does not cure the disease, just kind of helps prevent it from spreading further.
As another fun fact- most cloves are still hand picked today. Commercial harvesting is nearly impossible due to the fact that each flower will mature at very different times, even if growing in the same clump. This, coupled with the fact that flowers need to be harvested in a specific window to yield the most oil/flavor, means that harvesting these blooms takes a well trained eye and a whole lot of time. Luckily though they aren’t as expensive as vanilla pods or saffron, but it does pair nicely with both!
In Magic, clove is largely used for finding love and protection from evil or bad intentions. As a fun fact, that’s actually part of the folk magic behind the clove oranges we make for Yule! They not only make your home smell amazing, but they also serve as a symbol and sort-of physical manifestation of the abundance, love, and protection you hope to have in the year to come.
They are also sometimes used in spells as a symbolic replacement for nails because of their shape, but that would typically be in place of protection vs warding spells like witch jars and the like.
This is where I am VERY tempted to drag you into the deep dive/fixation I have on the history of folk magic relics like witch jars and frog coffins, but we have a lot of ground to cover, so that’s gonna have to wait.
Historically, the clove tree was very important to the native people of malluca, who used to plant a clove tree every time a child was born as a celebration of life and wish for future abundance.
That gave way to fragrant clove forests that smelled amazing and (fortunately and unfortunately) drew a LOT of interest from spice traders. Of course, if you know your history, you know what the spice trade has had as many wars waged as there are seasoning mixes, and clove was certainly not exempt from this. After the fighting stopped, Denmark came out on top and claimed those delightful little flowers as their own, setting up a monopoly so intense that they would go out of their way to destroy any and all clove plants growing on lands not under their occupation. NOT COOL.
In other lame news some people would also employ clove to stop women from gossiping, as it was said to have magical abilities to stop evil and rid the spirit of impurities, which, much like radishes- did not work, as gossiping is actually a totally normal and historically important practice for (historically) women, who usually are more or less discussing relevant news that people in power just don’t like having spread around….like the rumor (I suspect TRUTH) that Elon Musk is Allegedly the inspiration behind the build of the cybertruck.
In MORE fun news, clove was also a popular additive to betel nut chewing- a very ancient and time honored narcotic/ stimulant made from the areca or betel nut, slacked lime aka chalk, and wrapped in betel leaves, then chewed for either a wake-up like coffee or something a little more than that.
This concoction has been historically popular across Asia, with each region having its own preparation, practice, and level of acceptance. Many traditions see the addition of tobacco and spices to make for a more pleasant taste and to help a tiny bit with some of the other complications. This stuff is kind of like chewing tobacco, but far more addictive and it also dusts your spit and mouth bright red- but the practice, cancer risk and sometimes disdain is about the same.
As you might have guessed, clove is also kind of seen as a very early breath mint, with records from a VERY long time ago indicating that people would chew them before meeting with royalty and other important figures to really put their best foot forward! This is largely why so many early candies and breath mints were also flavored this way…and honestly I have got to say that my heart aches a bit for those little house on the prairie children when I think about their gumdrop options essentially just being mouthwash or citrus….but gosh did those old-timey kids LOVE them. Imagine what sour skittles would be like for them..would they love them? Would they be afraid? Would they ask for more clove gumdrops? We will never know.
But clove wasn’t just loved by sad sad children- Victorian adults also loved clove in their pomander- those golden balls you sometimes see in their portraits hanging by their robes! These bad boys were filled with fragrance and could be sniffed at times when the plague was really aggressive and the smell was ... .I'm gonna be honest- it was putrid. And it would have to be for people to decide that carrying around a giant golden perfume ball was worth it. But basically if someone gave you an orange with a bunch of cloves in it for your pomander you were IN.
And it wasn’t just them- turns out our love for cloves goes back a LOT further- like honestly so far back that I was kind of shocked. We’re talking all the way back to the 100’s people were already trading these bad boys. By the time vikings were sailing around, they were stocking up on cloves to use in trade, and numerous cultures across Europe have been documented using them in burial- probably as a sort of embalming situation and just a general token of remembrance and respect.
Which also brings us to clove’s use in medicine.
Clove is widely known to be a very good antifungal and anti-bacterial ally. It was often employed in early dentistry to help with things like dry sockets (which were super common, since our best treatment for cavities was hot wax sealants, which often caused more harm and meant LOTS of ripped out teeth), as well as toothaches. These worked because the clove was able to help reduce some inflammation and could have a sort of numbing effect while also helping to kill any lingering bacteria that might have been causing some issues.
This is because cloves are very high in a chemical called Eugenol - a phenolic monoterpenoid responsible for the clove-y smell and the antibacterial and anti- inflammatory properties. While we aren’t 100% sure how it works, it seems to target the outer cell walls of bacteria, weakening them enough to let our immune systems really get to work in there while also blocking inflammatory responses and pain receptors. While that is all AMAZING news for toothaches, you should also know that eugenol does act as a blood thinner, so there is such a thing as too much of a good thing when it comes to this guy.
It’s also because of eugenol that cloves have also been an effective ally against Dengue fever- a nasty little virus spread by mosquitoes but for some reason inexplicably makes me picture capybaras?? I don’t know how that happened, but now we can all ponder it!
Also some sources I saw said that clove was used to help with premature ejaculation and exorcism, but no one would elaborate on either so I am filing that away under “forbidden knowledge” until we figure it out.
That's all I’ve got for this week, but we’ll be back here next week with a highly requested deep dive I think you’ll really like. See you then!
Sources:
https://www.solidagoherbschool.com/blog/2020/12/4/pzlyjvnquk2dpmjstxeg5mr7g98mr8
https://www.flyingthehedge.com/2019/12/magical-uses-of-cloves.html
https://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/biomed/spice/index.cfm?displayID=7
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3819475/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrtaceae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clove
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ancient-origins-of-catholic-exorcism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C5%A1ipu
https://search.worldcat.org/title/70876264
