The wordclove, first used in English in the15th century, derives viaMiddle Englishclow of gilofer,[7] Anglo-Frenchclowes de gilofre and Old Frenchclou de girofle, from the Latin wordclavus "nail".[8][9] The related English wordgillyflower, originally meaning "clove", derives[10] via said Old Frenchgirofle and Latincaryophyllon, from the Greekkaryophyllon "clove", literally "nut leaf".[11][7]
The clove tree is anevergreen that grows up to 8–12 metres (26–39 ft) tall, with large leaves andcrimson flowers grouped in terminal clusters. The flower buds initially have a pale hue, gradually turn green, then transition to a bright red when ready for harvest. Cloves are harvested at 1.5–2 centimetres (5⁄8–3⁄4 in) long, and consist of a longcalyx that terminates in four spreadingsepals, and four unopened petals that form a small central ball.
Clovestalks are slenderstems of theinflorescence axis that show oppositedecussate branching. Externally, they are brownish, rough, and irregularly wrinkled longitudinally with short fracture and dry, woody texture.Mother cloves (anthophylli) are the ripe fruits of cloves that are ovoid, brown berries,unilocular and one-seeded.Blown cloves are expanded flowers from which bothcorollae andstamens have been detached.Exhausted cloves have most or all the oil removed by distillation. They yield no oil and are darker in color.[citation needed]
Cloves are used in the cuisine ofAsian,African,Mediterranean, and theNear andMiddle East countries, lending flavor to meats (such asbaked ham),curries, andmarinades, as well as fruit (such as apples, pears, andrhubarb). Cloves may be used to give aromatic and flavor qualities to hot beverages, often combined with other ingredients such as lemon and sugar. They are a common element in spice blends (as part of theMalayrempah empat beradik –"four sibling spices"– besides cinnamon, cardamom and star anise for example[12]), includingpumpkin pie spice andspeculaas spices.
It is often added tobetel quids to enhance aroma while chewing.[15] The spice is used in a type of cigarette calledkretek in Indonesia.[1] Clove cigarettes were smoked throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. Clove cigarettes are currently classified in the United States ascigars,[16] the result of aban on flavored cigarettes in September 2009.[17]
Cloveessential oil may be used to inhibitmold growth on various types of foods.[18] In addition to these non-culinary uses of clove, it can be used to protect wood in a system forcultural heritage conservation, and showed the efficacy of clove essential oil to be higher than aboron-based wood preservative.[19] Cloves can be used to make a fragrantpomander when combined with an orange. When given as a gift in Victorian England, such a pomander indicated warmth of feeling.
ArchaeologistGiorgio Buccellati found cloves inTerqa, Syria, in a burned-down house which was dated to 1720 BC during thekingdom of Khana. This was the first evidence of cloves being used in the west before Roman times. The discovery was first reported in 1978.[28][29][30][31] They reachedRome by the first century AD.[32][33][34]
Other archeological finds of cloves include: At theBatujaya site a single clove was found in a waterlogged layer dating to between the 100s BC to 200s BC corresponding to theBuni culture phase of this site.[35] A study at the site ofÓc Eo in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam found starch grains of cloves on stone implements used in food processing. This site was occupied from the first to eighth century BC, and was a trading center for thekingdom of Funnan.[36] Two cloves were found during archaeological excavations at theSri Lankan city ofMantai dated to around 900–1100 AD.[37][38]
Cloves are mentioned in theRamayana.[39] Cloves are also mentioned in theCharaka Samhita.[35][40] One of the earliest examples of literary evidence of cloves in China is from the book theHan Guan Yi (Etiquettes of the Officialdom of the Han Dynasty, dating to around 200 BC). The book states a rule that ministers should suck cloves to sweeten their breath before speaking to the emperor.[citation needed] From Chinese records during theSong Dynasty (960 to 1279 AD) cloves were primarily imported by private ventures, called Merchant Shipping Offices, who bought goods from middlemen in the Austronesian polities ofJava,Srivijaya,Champa, andButuan. During theYuan dynasty (1271 to 1368 AD) Chinese merchants began sending ships directly to the Moluccas to trade for cloves, and other spices.[36][41]
TheLiber Pontifcalis records an endowment made by Passinopolis underPope Sylvester I. This endowment included an Egyptian estate, its annual revenues, 150libra (around 50 kg or 108 lb) of cloves, and other amounts of spices and papyrus.[42]Cosmas Indicopleustis in his bookTopographia Christiana outlined his travels to Sri Lanka, and recounted that the Indians said that cloves, among other products, came in from unspecified places along sea trade routes.[35][citation needed]
Cloves were also present in records inChina,Sri Lanka,Southern India,Persia, andOman by around the third century to second century BC.[32][33][34] These mentions of "cloves" reported in China, South Asia, and the Middle East come from before the establishment of Southeast Asian maritime trade. But all of these are misidentifications that referred to other plants (likecassia buds,cinnamon, ornutmeg); or are imports fromMaritime Southeast Asia mistakenly identified as being natively produced in these regions.[41]
Archaeologists recovered the earliest known example of macro-botanical cloves in northwest Europe from the wreck of the Danish-Norwegian flagship,Gribshunden. The ship sank nearRonneby, Sweden in June 1495 whileKing Hans was sailing to political summit at Kalmar, Sweden. Exotic luxuries including cloves, ginger, peppercorns, and saffron would have impressed the noblemen and high church officials at the summit.[43]
Cloves have been documented in the burial practices of Europeans from the late middle ages into the early modern period. During renovations on theGrote Kerk of Breda a tomb was rediscovered that was used between 1475 and 1526 AD by eight members of thehouse of Nassau. These burials had to be moved, but before being re-interred these burials were studied for botanical remains. The burial ofCimberga van Baden contained pollen from cloves. The Dutch PhysicianPieter Van Foreest wrote down multiple recipes for embalming some of which included cloves. One of these recipes he wrote down was that used by his fellow physicians Spierinck and Goethals.[44] Anembalming jar associated withVittoria della Rovere also contained clove pollen. This probably came from her ingestion of clove oil as a medicine in her final days.[45][46][47] When burials needed to be moved from the church of Saint Germain inFlers, France they were also studied for botanical remains. The body and coffin of Philippe René de la Motte Ango, count of Flers who was buried in 1737 AD contained whole cloves.[48]
During the colonial era, cloves were traded like oil, with an enforced limit on exportation.[49] As theDutch East India Company consolidated its control of thespice trade in the 17th century, they sought to gain amonopoly in cloves as they had in nutmeg. However, "unlike nutmeg andmace, which were limited to the minuteBandas, clove trees grew all over the Moluccas, and the trade in cloves was beyond the limited policing powers of the corporation".[50] One clove tree namedAfo that experts believe is the oldest in the world onTernate may be 350–400 years old.[49] Tourists are told that seedlings from this very tree were stolen by a Frenchman namedPierre Poivre in 1770, transferred to theIsle de France (Mauritius), and then later toZanzibar, which was once the world's largest producer of cloves.[49]
Current leaders in clove production areIndonesia,Madagascar,Tanzania,Sri Lanka, andComoros.[51] Indonesia is the largest clove producer, but only about 10-15% of its cloves production is exported, and domestic shortfalls must sometimes be filled with imports from Madagascar.[51] The modern province ofMaluku remains the largest source of cloves in Indonesia with around 15% of national production, although provinces comprising the island ofSulawesi produced over 40% collectively.[52]
The compoundeugenol is responsible for most of the characteristic aroma of cloves.
Eugenol comprises 72–90% of the essential oil extracted from cloves, and is the compound most responsible for clove aroma.[14][53] Completeextraction occurs at 80 minutes in pressurized water at 125 °C (257 °F).[54] Ultrasound-assisted and microwave-assisted extraction methods provide more rapid extraction rates with lower energy costs.[55]
^Hariati Azizan (Aug 2, 2015). "A spicy blend of tradition". Star2.The Star. p. 9.
^Dorenburg, Andrew and Page, Karen.The New American Chef: Cooking with the Best Flavors and Techniques from Around the World, John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2003
^Buccellati, G., M. Kelly-Buccellati, The Terqa Archaeological Project: First Preliminary Report., Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes 27–28, 1977–1978, 71–96.
^Buccellati, G., M. Kelly-Buccellati, Terqa: The First Eight Seasons, Les Annales Archeologiques Arabes Syriennes 33(2), 1983, 47–67.
^Smith, Monica (2019)."The Terqa Cloves and the Archaeology of Aroma"(PDF). In Valentini, Stefano; Guarducci, Guido; Buccellati, Giorgio; Kelly-Buccellati, Marilyn (eds.).Between Syria and the Highlands: Studies in Honor of Giorgio Buccellati & Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati. Rome: Arbor Sapientiae Editore. pp. 373–377.ISBN978-8831341011.
^abMahdi, Waruno (2003). "Linguistic and philological data towards a chronology of Austronesian activity in India and Sri Lanka". In Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.).Archaeology and Language IV: Language Change and Cultural Transformation. Routledge. pp. 160–240.ISBN978-1-134-81624-8.
^abArdika, I Wayan (2021). "Bali in the Global Contacts and the Rise of Complex Society". In Prasetyo, Bagyo; Nastiti, Titi Surti; Simanjuntak, Truman (eds.).Austronesian Diaspora: A New Perspective. UGM Press. p. 196.ISBN978-602-386-202-3.
^ab"Cloves".Silk Routes. The University of Iowa. Archived fromthe original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved24 January 2022.
^abPtak, Roderich (January 1993). "China and the Trade in Cloves, Circa 960–1435".Journal of the American Oriental Society.113 (1):1–13.doi:10.2307/604192.JSTOR604192.
