Eugenia Caryophyllata; Eugenia aromaticum and Syzygium aromaticum are all accepted botanical names for Clove. This tree, native to the Molucca Islands (also known as the Spice Islands) in the Indian Ocean is now cultivated throughout Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Tanzania and Brazil and is a member of the Myrtaceae family. It is an evergreen with large oval leaves and crimson flowers and grows to a height of around 12 meters. At the start of the rainy season long buds appear with a rosy-pink corolla at the tip. As the corolla fades the calyx slowly turns deep red. These are then beaten from the tree and dried to become the spice that is well known all over the world. The name clove is derived from the Latin clavus which means ‘nail’ and refers to the shape of the dried buds which vaguely resemble small irregular nails.
Did you know according to folklore sucking on two whole Cloves, without chewing or swallowing them, can help to curb the desire for alcohol. In Moluccan folklore, villagers treated blossoming clove trees like a pregnant woman. No man could approach them wearing a hat, no noise could be made near them and no light or fire could be carried past them at night for fear they would not bear fruit. Some Moluccans still plant a clove tree at the birth of a child, with the belief that if the tree flourishes, so will the child.
Chinese medicine has used cloves to treat indigestion, diarrhea, hernia, ringworm and athlete's foot and other fungal infections. In traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine, the spice is used to treat respiratory and digestive problems. St. Hildegarde wrote in her book ‘Morborum Causae et Curae’ that cloves were included in the treatments for headaches, migraines, deafness after a cold and dropsy. She advised that cloves would warm people feeling cold and cool those who felt hot. During the Renaissance, pomanders were made with cloves to keep epidemics and the plague at bay.
Toothache is still effectively treated with cloves as thanks to its eugenol content it has both analgesic and antiseptic qualities. A bruised clove or some clove oil on cotton wool is held in the mouth near the tooth. And of course cloves are used as a culinary spice in kitchens around the world.
On a subtle level clove helps one to reflect on the root cause of fear, pain and anger. It supports one in moving forward into greater joy and spontaneity. Clove can be helpful in clearing negative feelings or pessimism. It can give one a sense of protection as well as the courage to take whatever steps are needed at the time.
Use in low concentrations on the skin as this oil can cause skin irritations. It can also cause irritations to the mucous membranes.
2 comments:
It's interesting what St.Hilidegarde wrote in her book. She said that clove can cure for deafness? Does that mean the clove will help the person become hearing from deaf? I am deaf. I'm puzzle myself.
I think we have to keep two things in mind 1. St. Hildegarde lived in the Middle Ages when ideas on conditions and what would cure them were sometimes quite different and 2. She was also a Mystic. It is quite possible that with respect to using clove with deafness she was not actually referring to physical deafness as in not physically being able to hear but more to spiritual deafness as in not 'hearing' the things that were there to be heard.
At any rate this is just what comes to my mind. Do I think that clove will cure deafness due to physically reasons? No I don't. Do I think that there is a possibility that clove could be helpful in cases where deafness is the result of emotional, spiritual or mental causes? There is always the possibility that clove will shift the block that caused the condition in the first place.
Do I think that clove could be helpful when one is blending for the more spiritual and wanting to 'hear' at all levels? Yet is might.
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