Spices · Agriculture · 11 min read

Clove: the Flower Bud That Built Empires

Picked just before it blooms and dried in the sun, the clove is one of the most powerful spices in the world. How cloves grow in the cool hills of Kottayam and Idukki, home of the GI-tagged Thalanad clove, and how they are processed, graded and used.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

A clove is a flower that never opened: the dried bud of a tropical tree, picked just before it blooms. Small as it is, it carries one of the strongest aromas of any spice, and it was once among the most precious goods on earth. In Kerala, clove trees grow in the cool, wet hills of the Western Ghats, and the hill country of Kottayam and Idukki produces some of India's finest cloves; in 2025 the cloves of Thalanad, on the Kottayam–Idukki border, received a Geographical Indication tag.

History

Cloves grew only on a few islands of the northern Moluccas until the 18th century, yet they were known in China over two thousand years ago, where courtiers were said to hold cloves in their mouths to sweeten their breath before speaking to the emperor. Arab traders carried them west, and they were among the most valuable cargoes of the spice trade. The Dutch held a monopoly for over a century, until the French smuggled seedlings to Mauritius in the 1770s, from where cloves spread to Zanzibar and Madagascar. In India, the East India Company is said to have planted cloves in its spice garden at Courtallam in Tamil Nadu around 1800, and from there the tree spread to the hills of Kerala.

Why the hills?

Clove needs a warm, humid climate with 1,500 to 2,500 mm of rain, but does best at moderate altitudes, around 800 to 1,200 m, where cool nights help the buds form and keep their oil. The cool December–January harvest season of the hills preserves the essential oil, which is why hill cloves, such as those of Thalanad and the neighbouring Idukki hills, are known for their size, colour and high oil content.

From planting to harvest

• Propagation: from seed; fresh seeds are sown in nurseries, and seedlings are planted out at 18 to 24 months.
• Planting: at the start of the monsoon, about 6 to 7 m apart, with shade for the young plants.
• Care: mulching, manuring, irrigation in the dry season, and protection from leaf rot and seedling wilt.
• First crop: trees begin flowering at 6 to 8 years and reach full bearing at about 15 years. They can live for a century.
• Harvest: buds are picked by hand when they have reached full size and turned from green to pink, just before they open. Pickers climb the trees or use ladders and break off whole clusters. Opened flowers have lost much of their value.

Processing

• Separating: the buds are separated from the flower stalks by hand.
• Drying: they are spread in the sun for 4 to 5 days, until they turn dark brown and snap when bent, with a moisture content of about 10 to 12 percent. About three kilos of fresh buds give one kilo of dry cloves.
• By-products: the flower stalks (clove stems) and leaves are distilled for clove stem oil and clove leaf oil.

Sorting and grading

Dry cloves are cleaned and graded by size, colour, the proportion of "headless" cloves (buds that have lost their round heads), "khoker" (fermented, pale cloves), stems and foreign matter, and by their oil content. Large, plump, reddish-brown cloves with intact heads and a strong aroma are the best. Good cloves release oil when pressed with a fingernail, and sink or float upright in water. In Kerala, cloves are sold through local dealers and cooperatives such as the Thalanadan Clove Growers and Processing Industrial Cooperative Society.

Markets

India is a net importer of cloves, buying mainly from Indonesia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Comoros, because its own production falls short of demand from the spice, food and pharmaceutical industries. Prices of Indian cloves rose sharply in the 2020s as production fell in Tamil Nadu, reaching around ₹1,000 a kilo; GI-tagged Thalanad cloves were expected to fetch more.

Nutrition

Approximate values; source: USDA FoodData Central. Spices are eaten in small amounts, so a typical serving supplies only a small share of these nutrients.

Cloves contain 15 to 20 percent essential oil, which is 70 to 90 percent eugenol, responsible for their numbing, antiseptic and warming qualities, with caryophyllene and eugenyl acetate.

Clove in Ayurveda

In Ayurveda, clove is Lavanga. It is described as pungent and bitter, light and cooling in action, and is traditionally used for toothache, bad breath, cough and asthma, indigestion, nausea and hiccups. Lavangadi vati is a classical preparation for cough and sore throat. Clove oil has long been used by dentists and in home remedies to numb toothache, a use supported by modern study of eugenol.

These are traditional uses. Spices are safe in normal food amounts; anyone thinking of using them as medicine, especially in pregnancy, while taking other medicines or for a child, should ask a qualified doctor.

Uses

• Kitchen: biryani, pulao, garam masala, meat curries, Kerala's spiced tea, pickles, mulled wine, ham, baking and Christmas spices.
• Dental and pharmaceutical: clove oil and eugenol in dental cements, toothache drops, toothpastes and mouthwashes; balms and liniments.
• Perfumery and cosmetics: clove oil in perfumes, soaps and "spicy" fragrances; eugenol is used to make vanillin, artificial vanilla flavour.
• Tobacco: in Indonesia, most cloves are smoked in kretek cigarettes.
• Home: clove-studded oranges (pomanders), insect repellents.