_Cloves_; F. _Girofles_, _Clous de Girofles_; G. _Gewürznelken_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Eugenia caryophyllata_ Thunberg (_Caryophyllus
aromaticus_ L.), a beautiful evergreen tree, 30 to 40 feet high,
resembling a gigantic myrtle, bearing numerous flowers grouped in small
terminal tricotomous cymes. The flower has an inferior ovary about ½ an
inch long, cylindrical, of a crimson colour, dividing at the top into 4
sepals; and 4 round concave petals larger than the calyx, imbricated in
the bud like a globe, but at length spreading and soon dropping off.
The clove-tree is said to be strictly indigenous only in the five
small islands constituting the proper Moluccas, namely Tarnati, Tidor,
Mortir, Makiyan and Bachian.[1071] These form a chain on the west side
of the large island of Jilolo, where, strange to say, the tree appears
not to exist in a wild state (Crawfurd). According to Rumphius, it
was introduced into Amboyna before the arrival of the Portuguese, and
is still cultivated there and in the neighbouring islands of Haruku,
Saparua and Nusalaut, also in Sumatra and Penang. It is likewise now
found in Malacca, the Mascarene Islands, the islands of Zanzibar and
Pemba on the eastern coast of Africa, and the West Indies.
[1069] _Hist. des Drog._ iii. (1869) 278.
[1070] _Blue Book of the Colony of the Straits Settlements_ for 1871,
Singapore, 1872.
[1071] Though these are the original Moluccas or Clove Islands, the
name has been extended to all islands east of Celebes and west of New
Guinea.
The tree which is grown for the spice appears to be a cultivated
variety, of lower stature and more aromatic than the wild form.
=History=[1072]—The Greek name Καρυόϕυλλον is supposed to refer to
the ball-like _petals_ of the bud, which, as above described, might
be compared to a small nut (κάρυον). But the name is very variably
written, as γαροῦμϕουλ, καρϕούϕουλ, γαρόϕαλα,[1073] 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.[1074]
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,[1075] 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,[1076] in his _Topographia Christiana_ written
about A.D. 547, states in the account of Taprobane (Ceylon) that silk,
aloes [-wood], cloves (Καρυόϕυλλον) and sandal-wood, besides other
productions, are imported thither from China, and other emporia, and
transmitted to distant regions. Alexander Trallianus,[1077] who was
a friend of Kosmos and a pupil of his father, prescribed in several
receipts 5 or 8 cloves, καρυοϕυλλου κόκκους, from which fact it may be
inferred that at his time (at Rome?) cloves were a very rare article.
A century later, Paulus Ægineta[1078] distinctly described cloves as
_Caryophyllon_—_ex India, veluti flores cujusdam arboris.. odorati,
acres_ ... and much used for a condiment and in medicine.
[1072] For the history of the oil see our article Cortex Cinnamon,
chemical composition.
[1073] Langkavel, _Botanik der späteren Griechen_, Berlin, 1866. 19.
[1074] At this period, the clove was called _Ki shêh hiang_, i.e.
_fowl’s tongue spice_. The modern name _Ting hiang_, i.e. _nail-scent_
or-_spice_, was in use in the 5th or 6th century of our era.
[1075] _Liber Pontificalis, seu de Gestis Romanorum Pontificum_, Romæ,
i. (1724) 94.
[1076] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, series Græca, lxxxviii. (1860) 446.
[1077] Puschman’s edition (quoted in the appendix) i. 435. 580.
Alexander dedicated his work to his teacher, the father of Cosmas.
[1078] _De re medica_, lib. vii. c. 3.
In the beginning of the 8th century, the same spice is noticed
by Benedictus Crispus,[1079] archbishop of Milan, who calls it
_Cariophylus 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.[1080]
We find cloves among the wares on which duty was levied at Acon (the
modern Acre) in Palestine at the end of the 12th century, at which
period that city was a great emporium of Mediterranean trade.[1081]
They are likewise enumerated in the tariff of Marseilles of A.D.
1228,[1082] in that of Barcelona of 1252[1083] and of Paris, 1296.[1084]
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,[1085] gives its price as 10_s._ to 12_s._ 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 Khurdádbah,[1086] 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[1087] made the same mistake four
centuries later: finding the spice in Java, he supposed it the growth
of the island.
Nicolo Conti,[1088] 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,[1089] 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 5_s._ 6_d._ and 5_s._ 9_d._ per lb.—of course, in
bond.[1090]
[1079] _Poematium Medicum_—Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, lxxxix. (1850)
374.
[1080] Pardessus, _Diplomata, Chartæ_, etc., ii. (1849) 309.
[1081] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Lois_, (1843) 173.
[1082] _Méry et Guindon, Hist. des Actes ... de la municipalité de
Marseille_, 1841. 373.
[1083] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la marina etc. de Barcelona_, iii. 170.
[1084] Douet d’Arcq, _Revue archéologique_, ix. (1852) 213.
[1085] _Manners and Household Expenses in England_ (Roxburgh Club),
1841. lii.
[1086] _Le Livre des routes et des provinces_, traduit par C. Barbier
de Meynard, _Journ. Asiat._ sér. 6. tome v. (1865) 227.
[1087] Yule, _Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 217.—It should however be borne
in mind that the name Java was applied in a general sense by the Arab
geographers to the islands of the Archipelago.
[1088] Kunstmann, _Die Kenntniss Indiens im XVᵗᵉⁿ Jahrhundert_,
München, 1863. 46.
[1089] Ramusio, _Delle navigationi et viaggi_, Venetia, 1554, fol. 404b.
[1090] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial series, East Indies_, 1862.
181.
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.[1091]
The clove-tree was carried thence to Cayenne in 1793, and to Zanzibar
about the end of the century.
Crawfurd,[1092] 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_ (p. 287), a tree of which on
the island of Makiyan was long supposed to be unique.
=Collection=—The flower-buds of the clove-tree when young are nearly
white, but afterwards become green and lastly bright red, when they
must at once be gathered. This in Zanzibar is done by hand; each clove
is picked singly, a moveable stage the height of the tree being used
to enable the labourers to reach the upper branches. The buds are then
simply dried in the sun, by which they acquire the familiar dark brown
tint of the commercial article. The gathering takes place twice a year;
in the Moluccas where the harvest occurs in June and December, the
cloves are partly gathered by hand, and partly beaten off the tree by
bamboos on to cloths spread beneath. The annual yield of a good tree is
about 4½ pounds, but sometimes reaches double that quantity.
=Description=—Cloves are about ⁶/₁₀ of an inch in length, and consist
of a long cylindrical calyx dividing above into 4 pointed spreading
sepals which surround 4 petals, closely imbricated as a globular bud
about ²/₁₀ of an inch in diameter.
The petals which are of lighter colour than the rest of the drug and
somewhat translucent from numerous oil-cells, spring from the base of
a 4-sided epigynous disc, the angles of which are directed towards the
lobes of the calyx. The stamens which are very numerous, are inserted
at the base of the petals and are arched over the style. The latter
which is short and subulate, rises from a depression in the centre of
the disc. Immediately below it and united with the upper portion of
the calyx is the ovary, which is 2-celled and contains many ovules.
The lower end of the calyx (_hypanthium_) has a compressed form; it
is solid but has its internal tissue far more porous than the walls.
The whole calyx is of a deep rich brown, has a dull wrinkled surface,
a dense fleshy texture, and abounds in essential oil which exudes on
simple pressure with the nail. Cloves have an agreeable spicy odour,
and a strong biting aromatic taste.
[1091] Tessier, _Sur l’importation du Giroflier des Moluques aux
Isles de France, de Bourbon et de Sechelles, et de ces isles à
Cayenne_.—_Observations sur la physique_, Paris, Juillet, 1779.
[1092] _Dictionary of the Indian Islands_, 1856, article _Clove_.
The varieties of cloves occurring in commerce do not exhibit any
structural differences. Inferior kinds are distinguished by being less
plump, less bright in tint, and less rich in essential oil. In London
price-currents, cloves are enumerated in the order of value thus:
Penang, Bencoolen, Amboyna, Zanzibar.
=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of the lower part of a
clove shows a dark rhomboid zone, the tissue on either side of which
is of a lighter hue. The outer layer beneath the epidermis exhibits a
large number of oil-cells, frequently as much as 300 mkm. in diameter.
About 200 oil-cells may be counted in one transverse section, so that
the large amount of essential oil in the drug is well shown by its
microscopic characters. The above-mentioned zone is chiefly made up of
about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, another stronger bundle traversing the
centre of the clove. The fibro-vascular bundles, as well as the tissue
bordering the oil-cells, assume a greenish black hue by alcoholic
perchloride of iron. Oil-cells are also largely distributed in the
leaves, petals and even the stamens of Eugenia.
=Chemical Composition=—Few plants possess any organ so rich in
essential oil as the drug under consideration. The oil known in
pharmacy as _Oleum Caryophylli_, which is the important constituent
of cloves, is obtainable to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent. But to
extract the whole, the distillation must be long continued, the water
being returned to the same material.
The oil is a colourless or yellowish liquid with a powerful odour
and taste of cloves, sp. gr. 1·046 to 1·058. It is a mixture of a
hydrocarbon, and an oxygenated oil called _Eugenol_, in variable
proportions. The former which is termed _light oil of cloves_ and comes
over in the first period of the distillation, has the composition
C₁₅H₂₄, a sp. gr. of 0·918 and boils at 251° C. It deviates the plane
of polarization slightly to the left, and is not coloured on addition
of ferric chloride; it is of a rather terebinthinaceous odour.
Eugenol, sometimes called _Eugenic Acid_, has a sp. gr. of 1·087 at 0°
C., and possesses the full taste and smell of cloves. Its boiling point
is 247°·5 C. With alkalis, especially ammonia and baryta, it yields
crystallizable salts. Eugenol may therefore be prepared by submitting
the crude oil of cloves to distillation with caustic soda; the “light
oil” distils then, the eugenol, being now combined with sodium, remains
in the still. It will be obtained on addition of an acid and again
distilling. Eugenol is devoid of rotatory power, whence the crude oil
of cloves, of which eugenol is by far the prevailing constituent, is
optically almost inactive. The constitution of eugenol is given by the
{OCH₃
formula C₆H₃ {OH .
{CH·CH·CH₃
It belongs to the phenol class, and has also been met with in the
fruits of Pimenta officinalis (see next article), in the Bay leaves, in
Canella bark (see page 75), in the leaves and flower buds of Cinnamomum
zeilanicum and in Brazilian clove-bark (_Dicypellium caryophyllatum_
Nees).
Eugenol can be converted into _Vanillin_ (see Fructus Vanillæ).
The water distilled from cloves is stated to contain, in addition to
the essential oil, another body, _Eugenin_, which sometimes separates
after a while in the form of tasteless, crystalline laminæ, having the
same composition as eugenol.[1093] We have never met with it.
According to Scheuch (1863), oil of cloves also (sometimes) contains a
little _Salicylic acid_,
{OH
C₆H₄ { ,
{COOH
which may be removed by shaking the oil with a solution of carbonate of
ammonium.
_Caryophyllin_, C₂₀H₃₂O, is a neutral, tasteless, inodorous substance,
crystallizing in needle-shaped prisms. We have obtained it in small
quantity, by treating with boiling ether cloves, which we had
previously deprived of most of their essential oil by small quantities
of alcohol. E. Mylius (1873) obtained from it by nitric acid, crystals
of _Caryophyllinic Acid_, C₂₀H₃₂O₆.
_Carmufellic Acid_ obtained in colourless crystals, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₆, in 1851
by Muspratt and Danson after digesting an aqueous extract of cloves
with nitric acid, is a product of this treatment and not a natural
constituent of cloves.
Cloves contain a considerable proportion of gum; also a tannic acid not
yet particularly examined.
=Production and Commerce=—Of late years the principal locality for
the production of cloves has been the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba
on the east coast of Africa, which until very recently were capable
of producing a maximum crop of 10½ millions of pounds in a single
season. On the 15th April 1872, Zanzibar was visited by a hurricane of
extraordinary violence, by which about five-sixths of the clove-trees
in the island were destroyed; and although the plantations are being
renewed, many years must elapse before the crop can resume its
former importance. Pemba, which is distant from Zanzibar 25 miles,
and produced about half as much of the spice as that island, did not
appreciably suffer from the storm.
The crop on these islands fluctuates, a good year alternating with a
bad one. This is partly shown in the imports of Bombay, the great mart
of Zanzibar produce, which have been as follows:—
1869-70 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73
45,642 cwt. 21,968 cwt. 43,891 cwt. 25,185 cwt.
The quantity of cloves shipped from Bombay to the United Kingdom is
comparatively small, being in 1871-72, 3279 cwt.; in 1872-73, 3271 cwt.
The imports of cloves to the United Kingdom are from one million to
four million pounds annually.
Cloves are also largely shipped direct from Zanzibar to the United
States and Hamburg. A small amount is taken in native vessels to the
Red Sea ports; these are packed in raw hides. Those for the European
and American markets are shipped in mat bags made of split cocoa-nut
leaf.
[1093] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xiv. (1860) 201.
The clove trade of the Moluccas has been for many years in the hands
of the Dutch Government, which, by its restrictive policy, assumed
practically the position of growers, disposing of their produce through
the Netherlands Trading Company at auctions held in Holland twice a
year. This system having been abolished in 1872, has proved disastrous
to the trade it was designed to protect, and to such a degree that the
produce of cloves in the Moluccas is but a tenth of what it was in
the early days of their intercourse with Europe. The crop of the four
islands, Amboyna, Haruku, Saparua, and Nusalaut, the only Moluccas in
which the tree is cultivated, was reckoned in 1854 as 510,912 lb.
The export of cloves from Java in 1871 was 1397 peculs[1094] (186,226
lb.). The French island of Réunion which from 1825 to 1849 used to
produce annually as much as 800,000 kilogrammes (1,764,571 lb.), now
yields almost none, owing chiefly to the frequent hurricanes.
=Uses=—As a remedy, cloves are unimportant, though in the form of
infusion or distilled water they are useful in combination with other
medicines. The essential oil which sometimes relieves toothache is a
frequent ingredient of pill-masses. The chief consumption of cloves is
as a culinary spice.
=Substitutes=—1. _Clove Stalks_—_Festucœlvel Stipites Caryophylli_, in
French _Griffes de Girofle_, in German _Nelkenstiele_, 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,[1095] A.D. 1305, duty was levied not
only on cloves (_garofali_), but also on _Folia et fusti garofalorum_.
Pegolotti[1096] a little later names both as being articles of trade at
Constantinople. Clove _Leaves_ are enumerated[1097] as an import into
Palestine in the 12th century; they are also mentioned in a list of the
drugs sold at Frankfort[1098] 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.[1099] As they contain very large starch granules, their
presence as an adulteration of ground cloves would be revealed by the
microscope.
[1094] _Consular Reports_, Aug. 1873. 952.
[1095] Bonaini, _Statuti inediti della città di Pisa dal xii. al xiv.
secolo_, iii. (1857) 106.
[1096] See p. 235, note 2.
[1097] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Lois_, ii. (1843) 173.
[1098] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 11. 38.
[1099] We find in the fortnightly price current of a London drug-broker
under date Nov. 27, 1873, the announcement of the sale of 1,050 bags
of Mother Cloves at 2_d._ to 3_d._ per lb., besides 4,200 packages of
Clove Stalks at 3_d._ to 4_d._ per lb.
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.[1100] 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.