How to Use Cloves in Natural Remedies to Improve Digestion
Cloves are normally used for culinary purposes, but they also have many medicinal benefits. Surely you’ve used them to season foods or to make desserts, but do you know about their digestive benefits?
Cloves have pain-relieving, antispasmodic, antibacterial, and anesthetic properties. Consuming natural remedies that include cloves are good for the digestive system. They relieve pain, reduce swelling, and fight infection, among other things.
Making remedies such as herbal teas or infusions with cloves improves the symptoms of stomach conditions such as gases, nausea, and vomiting caused by indigestion. These conditions are caused by a compound named eugenol, which is found in cloves.
What are the properties of eugenol?
Eugenol is responsible for the aromatic intensity in cloves. This component is an excellent antioxidant that delays cellular aging and fights heartburn. It’s a yellow oily liquid with an intense odor. Eugenol is also found in other plants such as allspice, basil, turmeric, bay, and cinnamon, but cloves have a lot more of it.
It’s good for treating digestive problems, respiratory infections, and toothaches. It can be used internally and externally, although people use it internally most of the time. Also, it has flavonoids. Here are a few of its other key properties:
- Anesthetic
- Anti-edemic
- Antacid
- Anti-emetic
- Antioxidant
- Gastroprotective and gastro-regenerative
- Antiviral
- Antiseptic
However, despite its many benefits, you should be careful when consuming eugenol because it’s quite toxic in large doses, especially if ingested as an essential oil. It’s not intended for pregnant women, infants, and children under the age of 6.
Read this article too: 8 Benefits from Eating a Garlic Clove a Day
How to use cloves in natural remedies to improve your digestion
There are several ways to use cloves for digestion remedies or to spice up meals. Everything will depend on each person’s tastes and their tolerance level to the spice because it has a very strong smell and taste. Here are some natural remedies you can make with cloves:
Clove tea
Clove tea lubricates the digestive tract and stimulates the digestive system so it works correctly. Also, it helps increase blood flow and fight bad breath, also known as halitosis.
One of the most common causes of bad breath are stomach problems, and cloves attack them directly in the digestive system. In addition, thanks to its aroma, it freshens your breath immediately because the tea fights bacteria right when it comes into contact with your mouth.
- To make this tea, all you have to do is crush the cloves and boil the resulting powder in some water.
- You can drink it in the mornings and at night on the days you feel discomfort.
Whole cloves
You can use them to season meals and make desserts or you can just chew them whole. Chewing them whole increases saliva production, as well as the production of fluids needed for digestion.
Clove essential oil
Essential clove oil comes from mixing olive oil and cloves in a bottle and resting them for several weeks. As we already indicated, you shouldn’t take it pure or consume too much of it because it can be toxic.
- To relieve vomiting and nausea, add 3 drops in a glass of water (200 ml).
Clove infusion
Its prepared similarly to clove tea, but with whole cloves. It helps fight constipation and stimulates digestive activity. You can drink a cup of this infusion after every meal until you no longer feel discomfort.
Nature offers an infinite number of very healthy medicinal options for your body, so you should supplement your medical treatments with natural remedies. While cloves don’t have the ability to heal digestive disorders, they may relieve some symptoms.
Don’t forget to visit your doctor on a regular and eat right. You can avoid indigestion in most cases with a balanced diet, free of the foods your stomach can’t tolerate. Be aware of the foods that make you feel bad and avoid eating them.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Fitomed. (2003). Clavo de olor.
- Gamboa, J. M., & Vásquez, M. N. (2015). Efecto del aceite esencial de Syzygium aromaticum sobre la supervivencia de Salmonella typhi , Salmonella paratyphi A y Bacillus cereus. Rebiolest.
- Agilar Gonzales, A. E., & Lopez Malo, A. (2013). Extractos y aceite esencial del clavo de olor (Syzygium aromaticum) y su potencial aplicación como agentes antimicrobianos en alimentos. Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Alimentos y Ambiental.