What are the benefits and effects of clove tea, a plant in the Myrtaceae family? Can it be drunk long-term?
Clove tea is mainly made from the dried flowers and leaves of the clove tree, an evergreen tree of the Myrtaceae family, and can also be used as a traditional Chinese medicinal material. Because it is widely loved for its broad-spectrum antibacterial and antiviral effects, if clove tea has such good benefits and effects, can it be drunk long-term? Let's take a look together.
The main nutrients in clove tea include: clove oil, eugenol, and it also contains tannins, oleanolic acid, and so on. It is suitable for everyone to drink, especially for people with stomach bloating and pain or without obvious spleen deficiency, or people in the recovery period from weak spleen and stomach, who can reduce the amount of Chinese medicine and take clove tea to nourish the stomach. Although clove tea is not a master at curing diseases, it is the best helper for regulating the spleen and stomach.
1. Nourishing the stomach: Clove tea is known as the “stomachic” of the herbal medicine world, and this title benefits from its outstanding stomach-nourishing function. The clove oil, eugenol, tannins, and oleanolic acid unique to clove tea leaves can treat gastrointestinal diseases, relieve abdominal gas distension, increase gastric juice secretion, and increase digestive ability.
2. Sterilization: The stomach and intestines are connected, and while clove tea regulates the stomach, it also brings great benefits to the intestines. Taking clove tea decocted in water has an inhibitory effect on Helicobacter pylori, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and so on.
3. Removing bad breath: In fact, there have long been records that clove can remove bad breath. It is said that in the Han Dynasty of China, when officials reported matters or answered questions in front of the emperor, they had to hold and chew clove in their mouths. This is because the fragrant aroma of clove could suppress the bad breath caused by stomach fire rising or periodontitis and the like, so it could avoid causing the emperor's displeasure or disgust. It can be seen that holding clove in the mouth can treat the problem of bad breath, not only with a long history, but the method is also very similar to today's “chewing gum”.
4. Medicinal use. According to the "Leigong Paozhi Lun", it is recorded: "Whenever using (clove tea), there are male and female, the male grains are small, the female grains are large, resembling jujube pits. In prescriptions, the female is mostly used, with greater power, while the male is used in ointment decoctions. Its pharmacological effects are nourishing the stomach and antibacterial, strengthening the stomach and dispelling wind, warming the middle and strengthening yang, and lowering qi and descending adverse flow.
Therefore, as a natural food ingredient, clove tea leaves are suitable for both men and women to drink, have very natural tonic effects, and are the best helper for regulating the spleen and stomach. Brewing a few cups every day can achieve the tonic effect you want, making your body better, and health will slowly return. There is no problem with drinking it long-term. However, it should be noted that pregnant women and children should not drink tea.