Clove | whatsinit

About

What it is and where it shows up.

Clove is the aromatic dried flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum, a tropical tree native to the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, widely used as a spice, flavoring agent, and natural preservative. Its primary bioactive constituent, eugenol (comprising 70–90% of clove bud oil), imparts the characteristic warm, pungent aroma and confers well-documented antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.

Safety summary

The regulatory and scientific consensus.

Clove buds, clove oil, and oleoresins are recognized as GRAS by the FDA and approved as food flavorings in the EU at typical culinary doses, with no formal ADI established for dietary spice use. Concentrated clove oil can be hepatotoxic at high doses due to eugenol; EFSA has flagged methyleugenol, a minor genotoxic-carcinogenic component of clove oil (up to 0.13%), though consumer exposure at normal food-use levels is considered well below levels of concern. Infants, young children, and individuals with liver disease face elevated risk from concentrated clove preparations.

Regulatory landscape

What food-safety regulators have decided.

Jurisdiction	Status	Note
EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) (European Union)	Approved	Clove bud oil and clove leaf oil are authorised as sensory/flavouring additives in food and feed under EU Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008; EFSA FEEDAP Panel (2023) concluded no consumer safety concern at proposed use levels (25–50 mg/kg complete feed for clove bud oil). Methyleugenol (≤0.13% minor component) is identified as a genotoxic carcinogen for which no safe threshold exists; exposure minimisation is recommended.source
FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) (India)	Approved	Cloves are explicitly regulated as a permitted whole and processed spice under FSSAI Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, Chapter 2.9 (Salt, Spices, Condiments and Related Products); purity, adulteration, and quality standards apply per FSS (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations 2011; FSSAI has also issued FSMS guidance specific to spice processing.source
JECFA (JECFA (FAO/WHO))	Approved	Codex Standard CXS 344-2021 for Cloves establishes international quality and purity specifications for the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum for global trade; countryCode 'UN' used as this is an international (non-country-specific) standard.source
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) (United States)	Approved

Who should approach with care

Whose guidance would steer them away.

Infants — Concentrated clove oil is acutely toxic to infants due to eugenol sensitivity, with reported cases of seizures, liver damage, and respiratory distress; whole clove buds also pose a choking hazard.

Children — Medicinal or supplemental clove oil doses should be avoided in young children given risk of eugenol toxicity; trace culinary use of the whole spice is generally considered safe.

Pregnancy — High-dose clove oil or clove supplements may exert uterotonic effects that could pose risk during pregnancy; culinary amounts of the whole dried spice are generally considered acceptable.

Liver Disease — Eugenol, clove's primary bioactive, is extensively metabolized hepatically and has demonstrated dose-dependent hepatotoxicity, posing elevated risk in individuals with compromised liver function.

Other — Individuals on anticoagulant therapy (e.g., warfarin) should exercise caution, as eugenol has demonstrated antiplatelet activity that may potentiate bleeding risk when clove is consumed in supplemental or oil form.

Research citations

The sources behind this verdict.

1FDA. FDA Substances Added to Food (EAFUS): Clove bud, oil (Eugenia spp.). hfpappexternal.fda.gov
2EFSA. Peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance clove oil, 2024. efsa.europa.eu
3EFSA. Safety and efficacy of feed additives consisting of essential oils derived from the flower buds or the leaves of Syzygium aromaticum (clove bud oil and clove leaf oils) for all animal species (FEFANA asbl), 2023. efsa.europa.eu
4FSSAI. FSSAI Guidance Document: Food Safety Management System for Spice Processing, 2018. fssai.gov.in
5PubMed. Safety assessment of a standardized polyphenolic extract of clove buds: Subchronic toxicity and mutagenicity studies, 2017. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Independently researched5 citations