Cloves: care, properties, and more

Have you heard of cloves? This is a tree native to Indonesia and Madagascar that has evergreen leaves and small, but very pretty, white flowers. Its flower buds, which are clove-shaped, are used as a spice.

But how do you take care of it? What properties does it have? If you want to know everything about cloves, do not lose detail of what I'm going to tell you next.

Clove care

Clove is a tropical tree, scientifically known by the name of Syzygium aromaticum. It grows to a height of 15m. Its leaves are coppery in color when young, changing to a very beautiful green when they finish developing. The flower buds measure about 2cm when they mature, when you can collect them to sow their seeds directly in a pot with a substrate composed of 60% black peat + 30% perlite + 10% worm humus (or other organic fertilizer).

This is a plant that, being native to a place where the climate is warm, does not support frost, so Its cultivation is only recommended in those areas where the temperature does not drop below 10ºC.. In addition, we must plant it in fertile soil, in a corner that is exposed to direct sun, and water it frequently, between 3 and 4 times a week. In this way, our cloves will grow without having any development problems.

Clove uses

It is mainly used as spice, either crushing the mature flower bud, or whole. Of course, as it has a strong flavor, very little is used. But it is also used to make cigarettes, as in Indonesia. In the East, however, they prefer to use it to make incense.

But in the West it is becoming increasingly popular for its medicinal use. In fact, having a high content of eugenol (60 to 90%), which is used as an anesthetic treatment in tooth pain, calms toothache.

Clove properties

Some of its interesting properties are the following:

• It helps to fight the symptoms of malaria, tuberculosis or cholera for its antiseptic properties.
• It serves for remove parasites, both internal and external.
• Used to stop vomiting, diarrhea, and also for remove dizziness.
• Cut Back the inflammation.

Cloves are a very practical plant, a plant for -almost- everything. What do you think? 🙂