Ingredient Spotlight : Cloves - Syzygium aromaticum

This spice is grown in several countries like Indonesia, India, Madagascar, the African continent, Malaysia, and Brazil.The spice grows on a tree and has been used in cooking, food preservation, and medicine. Cloves have significant health promoting properties that we can discuss as follows:

• Antioxidant properties: Cloves have very strong antioxidant properties secondary to their high polyphenol content, which is probably higher than most vegetables, fruits and spices.

• Nutritional content: Cloves are rich in phenolic compounds like eugenol and eugenol acetate and acids like caffeic, ferulic, elagic, hidroxibezoic, and gallic acid. Eugenol is the major bioactive agent in cloves. Other favonoids include quercetin and kaempferol.

• Antimicrobial/antiviral and antifungal properties: When studied in experimental models, Cloves seem to have antibacterial and antifungal effects, and they showed antibacterial effects against pathogens like E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus—these bacteria are involved in food-borne illness. Eugenol, the bioactive ingredient, was found to have inhibitory effects on Helicobacter pylori, which is the bacteria implicated in gastric ulceration and later development of cancers.

In summary, Cloves are rich in health promoting properties and I would encourage you to use cloves in your baked goods, sauces, and curries. I would like to stress that this is a spice and not a replacement for medications prescribed by your healthcare provider, and must be viewed as a food. Having said that, I wish and pray that you place an emphasis on your health and live long and strong!