Medicinal Uses Of Cloves

[cramy 0]

Fruits and herbs including rhubarb, pomegranate, mint and cloves could be used to develop new drugs for a range of human diseases, according to major new research. Scientists at Kings College London tested more than 8,000 natural chemicals taken from 240 plants most commonly used in Chinese medicine. They found almost two-thirds of the herbs contained chemicals which experts believe have the potential to be used as drugs to treat human diseases. Ginseng and rhubarb may be used to treat inflammation, while ginkgo and mint could potentially help control diabetes. Pomegranate and cloves could be used in treating HIV, because they contain a wide range of chemicals which could interfere with the way the virus attacks cells. Traditionally cloves have been used to treat flatulence, nausea and vomiting. In tropical Asia cloves have been given to treat such diverse infections as malaria, cholera and tuberculosis, as well as scabies. Traditional uses in America include treating worms, viruses, candida, various bacterial and protozoan infections. It is not safe to inhale cloves, however taken orally is fine provided you follow the RDA. It is recognized that rhubarb not only exercises a digestive action but it operates directly as a conveyer of bile salts. It can therefore be classed as a hepatic stimulant. Rhubarb performs its first digestive operation in the mouth by stimulating the taste buds with its pleasantly bitter flavor which gives a sense of cleansing out the oral cavity, preparing it to taste the coming food. When it reaches the stomach its digestive effects come into full play, causing an increase of the flow of gastric juice and inducing their movement, thus favoring the processing of the contents of the stomach. Besides stimulating the secretions from the liver which convey the bile salts, it assists the intestine in regulating the absorption of fats.

[Thorned Rose 0]

It's funny that modern society is only now just clueing onto the benefits of natural remedies when plants have been used to treat various ailments for thousands of years. While I don't agree with some of the ingredients in Chinese medicine and while some of them are complete hooey, Chinese medicine has been around thousands of years longer than modern medicine and drugs. The same can be said for many other civilisations. Ancient Egyptians used to eat mouldy bread to cure thngs. Nowadays we know it as penicillin, supposedly a 'modern' discovery. Or how about the recent advances on the benefits of high cocoa chocolate - the Aztecs knew a looong time ago how good it was.One thing I would like to point out about cloves other than the ones listed here - it's great for toothache. Got a sore tooth or ulcer and can't get to the dentist fast enough? - crunch down on a clove. Cloves have a natural anaesthetic which will dull the pain and the antimicrobial properties will help kill bacteria.

[techclave 0]

I always use cloves, when i have a toothache. It is really good for teeth .. Most of the toothpaste , uses cloves in their formula. And it has something good to do with digestion, apart from providing the flavor , i suppose .

[elrohir 0]

no duh, people, no duh.Even many of the people who study the older civilisations somehow thing them less civilised than we are today. Somehow more stupid? How are the medicines (or anything that we use today, for that matter) any more developed than the ones they had all these thousands of years ago? It's a pity to know that by that very logic, humans have ALWAYS been that arrogant, as well as stupid. Sad.

[Yratorm, LightMage 0]

Hmm, I study in a Ryu in the Himalayas, and my teachers have quite a knowledge of various natural remedies. We don't need these remedies, being extremely healthy, but we retain the knowledge to help others. Anyway, when I was younger, a mother brought three children who had chicken-pox to my teacher. Two of the kids were quite small, and the third was a teen-aged boy.My teacher told her to make paste of saffron (the spice) and apply it to their bodies, and to mix it in water and tell them to drink it several times a day.Anyway, the two little kids were obedient, and did as they were told, but the elder boy had had a westernized education in some city, so he just laughed and went to a regular doctor. And I must admit I shared his doubts - I'd had a westernized education too, hehe. Who had ever heard of something so simple curing chicken pox?Well, the two younger children were cured in two days flat. The elder boy (who visited a conventional doctor) was in agony on the third day, and on the fourth day the intense itching caused by the disease drove him to use the same remedy that had already cured his brothers, and he was cured two days later.Anyway, just a little incident in my personal experience where a 'natural' remedy worked.

Edited February 11, 2007 by Yratorm, LightMage (see edit history)

[kraizii88z 0]

Ooh, this is interesting, i use clove oil to freshen the breath. I use peppermint oil, sometimes, too, but it dosen't mix well with foods!I would also like to point out that the medical industry will NEVER EVER use "natural remedies" for curing people's diseases. They have to make a profit that is outrageously high, and they will chemically alter the natural medicine from these plants, and force it into some "unnatural medicine", so they can slap a patent on it, and get all the credit. This is what they always do. Every medicine that has ever been "invented", has come straight from a plant! It's been chemically altered in a laboratory so that someone can make a profit out of it. You can't make a profit on something that someone can just pick up at the store.

[FolkRockFan 0]

The pharmaceutical industry is corrupt - and getting away with it.They push tons of pills on doctors, who push them on patients. Got the flu? Take this heavy-duty antibiotic. Oh, wait. Antibiotics don't do anything for the flu. But let's not tell the patient that. And because the patient is used to this, s/he gets upset when a doctor who has a conscience says, "Nope - Penicillin isn't necessary."Pharmaceutical companies invest millions in developing a new drug. So the first one to come up with the drug gets the patent. For however many years, that pharmaceutical company rakes in all the profit because they have the only version of that new drug. But the patent expires at some point. Then other companies can make generic versions - the same drug, only cheaper - without having invested those millions in research and development. So the original pharmaceutical company makes TINY changes to their drug, which enables them to renew the patent.And of course, the patients eat the cost of that "new" drug, which isn't really all that different from the old version.

[Thorned Rose 0]

Saffron eh, does more than just taste good! I'll have to remember that one, although my kids and I have never gotten chickpox. I will certainly pass that tasty little tidbit onto other parents.For a great many years now I have been following a more healthy diet, eliminating dairy, cutting out refined foods etc. Because I have M.E. I used to be a walking pharmacy with the number of drugs I was on (I had a High-User card for goodness sake!) but since stopping them I will *never* go back to that. The damage they were doing far outweighed the very small benefit they gave. Now I'm a walking health shop lol. I always go for natural remedies nowadays and wouldn't have it any other way!Pharmaceutical companies are moneygrubbing *@#?&!$%s. There are no cures because cures don't generate money like treatments. For all I know there could be a very easy cure for my illness but they couldn't give a rats behind on researching it so long as people with M.E. are generating so much money for them. It's disgusting that a foundation has to be created to research cures because pharmaceutical companies won't do it.For that matter, it's disgusting how much the cosmetic and body-care industry is poisoning people and telling them that their products are safe. In reality it is causing skin sensitivity, allergies, cancer, hormone imbalances, blindness etc. Ditto to the dairy industry for telling people it makes their bones strong when it does the bloody opposite!Anyway, I shall stop ranting now lol. Natural FTW!

[Archangel_Baw 0]

HOW NOT TO MAKE TEA:)

 

I made teabags of 3 parts spearmint, 1 part sage & 1 part clove because I have horrible toothaches, and I found the sage does get rid of the infection while the clove numbs the pain;) it's a rather odd tasting tea so I tossed in tripple amounts of spearmint to make it more drinkable and less harsh on the tastebuds--

 

;D I have a funny personal story to share on this subject:

Lmao, the first tooth tea I ever made was a small handful of cloves in one coffee mug steeped for 7 minutes in boiling water-

-this was NOT a good Idea! oh yes my toothache was gone, but my mouth was so numb, I couldn't operate my tongue, I had a horrid aftertaste that refused to go away, and... lol,

[smiley=shocked.gif] -(this is embarassing but needs to be passed on to prevent others form reapeating my overkill mistake;) : I kept drooling when I wasn't speaking, (my mouth would NOT stop watering) and OMG: spitting whenever I tried to talk- i was going to name it Camel Clove Tea, but just decided not to ever make it again.

 

So, I hope sharing my experience spares even one aspiring herbalist from enduring this embarassing initiation of how NOT to make tea;).

 

Infact, just to remind all of you... Print out one of these pictures below & tape it to your Clove Jars:) You can even Name the Camel after me: (Archangel) if you so choose:)

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