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Nature volume151,page 194 (1943)Cite this article
Abstract
THE issues of Dental Items of Interest for June-October 1942 contain an interesting and scholarly article on this subject by Dr. Eugene J. Molnar, research associate of the Northwestern University Dental School, Toledo, Ohio. Originally, cloves were first used in the East Indies, India and China. After the decline of the Roman Empire the medical use of cloves was introduced into Byzantium, probably owing to its proximity to the East. The practice of using cloves for the treatment of dental caries, which developed in the middle of the sixteenth century, was introduced from extra-dental sources, namely, laymen, amateur botanists, apothecary-grocers and others. Eugenol, which was first extracted from oil of cloves by Ettling in 1834, received its name from Cahours in 1858, and is widely used in dentistry for the relief of pain. Its exact pharmacological properties for the treatment received considerable attention, but have not yet been fully determined. The action of eugenol in zinc-oxide-rosin cements, which form the best temporary filling material, also remains unknown.
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Medico-Dental History of Cloves. Nature 151, 194 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151194a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151194a0
