Oil of clove


Oil of clove, also known as clove oil, is an essential oil extracted from the clove plant, Syzygium aromaticum. It has the CAS number 8000-34-8.
Clove is often found in the aromatherapy section of health food stores, and is used in the flavoring of some medicines. Madagascar and Indonesia are the main producers of clove oil.
Clove oil has been promoted as having a wide range of health effects, but although the local anaesthetic properties are well documented there is insufficient medical evidence to support general claims for its use as a therapeutic. In Australia clove oil has been the cause of an increase in reported cases of children being poisoned.

Types

There are three types of clove oil:

Toothache

Particularly in South Korea and India, eugenol, a phytochemical extracted from clove oil, is used to relieve toothache. Applied to a cavity in a decayed tooth or tooth socket remaining after extraction, eugenol or clove oil can relieve toothache temporarily.
In the United States, the FDA considers eugenol ineffective for treating dental pain, and has downgraded clove oil as an analgesic due to insufficient evidence to rate its effectiveness.

Use on fish

Clove oil is commonly used to anesthetize or euthanize laboratory or pet fish.

Toxicity

In Australia clove oil is one of the many essential oils that have been increasingly causing cases of poisoning, mostly of children. In the period 2014-2018 there were 179 reported cases in New South Wales, accounting for 4.1% of essential oil poisoning incidents.
Eugenol, the major component, is hepatotoxic and may cause damage to the liver. Overdose is also possible.

Regulation

In Germany, Commission E permits the sale and administration of clove oil as a medicinal herb.