Dried Cloves

An evergreen native to Indonesia and India that grows from eight to twelve meters in height, the clove tree produces flower buds in clusters that are pale in color at first, become green, and then bright red, when they are ready for harvesting. Dried cloves are brown, hard, and nail-like in shape. Originating in Indonesia, cloves are dried flower buds from the clove tree. They are a popular spice that people use in soups, stews, meats, sauces, and rice dishes. Cloves vary in length from about 13 to 19 mm (0.5 to 0.75 inch). The buds contain 14 to 20 percent essential oil, the principal component of which is the aromatic oil eugenol. Cloves are strongly pungent owing to eugenol, which is extracted by distillation to yield oil of cloves.