11 Science-Based Benefits of Chewing Cloves in the Morning
Cloves are one of those spices that most people have sitting somewhere in their kitchen, used occasionally for cooking and mostly forgotten about otherwise. But cloves have a history in traditional medicine that goes back centuries, and modern research has started to examine some of the reasons why. The active compound responsible for most of cloves' documented properties is eugenol, a naturally occurring phenolic compound that makes up roughly 70 to 90 percent of clove essential oil. Eugenol has been studied for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and analgesic properties across multiple laboratory and animal studies. Human clinical trials are more limited, which is worth keeping in mind throughout this article. That said, incorporating two cloves into a morning routine is a low-cost, low-effort habit with a reasonable early evidence base. Here is what the research currently suggests it may support. What You Will Learn: What eugenol is and why it drives most of clo...