Northwestern University School of Pharmacy.
Biron--A lemon.
Lang--Stuck with cloves.
--_Shakespeare, Love's Labor Lost, V. 2._
Cloves are among our favorite spices, even more widely known and more
generally used than ginger. They are the immature fruit and flower-buds
of a beautiful aromatic evergreen tree of the tropics. This tree
reaches a height of from thirty to forty feet. The branches are nearly
horizontal, quite smooth, of a yellowish grey coloration, decreasing
gradually in length from base to the apex of the tree, thus forming a
pyramid. The leaves are opposite, entire, smooth, and of a beautiful
green color. The flowers are borne upon short stalks, usually three
in number, which extend from the apex of short branches. The calyx is
about half an inch long, changing from whitish to greenish, and finally
to crimson. The entire calyx is rich in oil glands. The petals are
four in number, pink in color, and drop off very readily. The stamens
are very numerous. All parts of the plant are aromatic, the immature
flowers most of all.
The clove-tree was native in the Moluccas, or Clove Islands, and the
southern Philippines. We are informed that in 1524 the Portuguese took
possession of these islands and controlled the clove market. About
1600 the Dutch drove out the Portuguese and willfully destroyed all
native and other clove-trees not under Dutch protection. The plan of
the Dutch was to prevent the establishment of clove plantations outside
of their own dominions, but in spite of their great watchfulness other
nations secured seeds and young plants and spread the cultivation of
this valuable spice very rapidly. Now cloves are extensively cultivated
in Sumatra, the Moluccas, West Indies, Penang, Mauritius, Bourbon,
Amboyne, Guiana, Brazil, and Zanzibar--in fact throughout the tropical
world. Zanzibar is said to supply most of the cloves of the market.
The cultivation of cloves in Zanzibar is conducted somewhat as follows:
The seeds of the plant are soaked in water for two or three days or
until germination begins, whereupon they are planted in shaded beds
about six inches apart, usually two seeds together to insure against
failure. The young germinating plants are shaded by frameworks of
sticks covered with grass or leaves. This mat is sprinkled with water
every morning and evening. The young plants are kept in these covered
beds for nine months or one year, after which they are gradually
hardened by removing the mat from time to time, and finally left in
the open entirely for a few months, after which they are ready for
transplanting.
Transplanting must be done carefully, so as not to injure the roots.
The plant is dug up by a special hoe-like tool, lifted up in the hand
with as much soil as possible, placed upon crossed strips of banana
fibres, which are taken up by the ends and wrapped and tied about the
plant. The plant is now carried to its new locality, placed in a hole
in the soil, the earth filled in about it, and finally the banana
strips are cut and drawn out.
The transplanted clove plants are now carefully tended and watered for
about one year, but they are not shaded as during the first year of
their existence. Usually many of the transplanted plants die, which
makes replanting necessary. This great mortality, it is believed
by some, might be reduced very materially by shading the recently
transplanted clove-trees for a time.
The clove-tree may attain an age of from 60 to 70 years and some have
been noted which were 90 years old and over. The average life of the
plantation clove-trees is, however, perhaps not more than 20 years. The
trees begin to yield in about five years after planting. The picking
of the immature flowers with the red calyx is begun in August and lasts
for about four months. From two to four crops are harvested each year.
Each bud may be picked singly by hand, but those of the higher branches
are more generally knocked off by means of bamboo sticks. After picking
the flowers are placed upon grass mats and dried in the sun, this
requiring from six to seven days. In the night and during rains they
are placed under cover. Drying changes the red color of the calyx to a
dark brown. The dried cloves are packed in gunny bags and carried to
Zanzibar where an internal revenue of 25 per cent. is paid in cloves.
From Zanzibar the cloves are exported in mat bags.
We know that cloves were used by the ancient Egyptians, for a mummy has
been found with a necklace of them. The Chinese used them extensively,
226 B. C. Plinius briefly described "Caryophyllon," which, according
to some commentators, referred to cloves and according to others to
cubebs. Cloves appeared in Europe about 314-335 A. D., evidently
introduced by way of Arabia. Emperor Constantine, who ruled about that
time made Pope Sylvester of Rome, among other things, a present of 150
pounds of cloves. In Grecian literature cloves are first mentioned
about the Sixth century. Trallianus recommended them in stomach
troubles and in gout.
The Germans designate cloves as _Gewürznägelein_, which means spice
nails, because of their resemblance to a nail, the corolla forming
the head and the calyx tube the nail. The aromatic odor and pungent
aromatic taste is due to an ethereal oil present in large quantities
(18 per cent.) in the calyx tube. This oil is used for various
purposes; as a clearing reagent in microtechnique, for toothache, as
an antiseptic, stomachic, irritant. It destroys insects and keeps them
away. When freshly extracted its color is pale amber but it gradually
assumes a reddish brown coloration. It is one of the least volatile
of ethereal or essential oils. It is also used by soapmakers and
perfumers.
Cloves are variously used as a spice. They are often stuck into pickled
fruits, as peaches, apples, apricots. The opening quotation from
Shakespeare suggests such a use with lemons. Some persons acquire an
inelegant and undesirable habit of chewing cloves. The pungent oil
deadens or benumbs the nerves of taste and touch and the persistent
mastication of cloves, is said to produce an excessive development of
fibrous tissue of the liver, a condition akin to "nutmeg liver" which
shall be referred to in our next paper.
Other parts of the clove-tree are also used occasionally, as for
instance the flower stalks known as clove stalks. They possess the
odor and taste of cloves but in a lesser degree. Formerly the leaves
were also used but it is said that they do not now appear in commerce.
The dried fruit known as mother of cloves is used more or less.
They contain far less oil than cloves and are comparatively less
valuable. Even the wood of the tree has been used as a spice. The
dried and ground flower stalk, the fruits and the wood are often used
to adulterate ground cloves. We would therefore advise housewives to
purchase the cloves and grind them at home. It is reported that cloves
have been adulterated with false cloves made from starch pressed into
the form of cloves and roasted. It is, however, not at all likely that
such a practice is carried on to any great extent. Sometimes cloves are
placed on the market from which the oil has been extracted.
The cultivated cloves are richer in essential oil than the native
cloves. The Zanzibar cloves are quite large. The principal market
varieties are English cloves, Amboyne cloves, Bourbon cloves, Cayenne
cloves, Zanzibar cloves, and others.
[Illustration: FROM KOEHLER'S MEDIZINAL-PFLANZEN.
CLOVE.]