Everything tastes like cloves

My coffee tastes like cloves, as does the banana bread and my strawberry yogurt I had for lunch. The icecream I had last night tastes like cloves, as did the Tilapia and boiled vegetables. I swill my mouth out with water, but that only makes the clove taste even more intense. I even smell like cloves (so I am told).

Currently I am recovering from having all my wisdom teeth removed on the 10th of this month. After developing dry socket over the weekend (worst pain ever, thank-you very much, and that is despite me taking heavy-duty prescription painkillers) my oral surgeon has packed the sockets where my impacted wisdom teeth once were with gauze soaked in Oil of Cloves.

Oil of Cloves is obtained from the clove plant, Syzygium aromaticum, in fact from pretty much any part of the clove plant. The only active ingredient is eugenol, and it and Oil of Cloves have some pretty weird and wonderful uses. It is basically the clove-like smell associated with going to the dentists, as it is a natural topical anaesthetic (hence it being stuffed in the gaping holes where my teeth once were). It is also present, at smaller concentrations, in Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Bay Leaves. But its also toxic when ingested in large amounts (lethal dose for humans is 3.7g/kg) and is used to euthanize fish, in addition to being used to polish and clean Samurai swords.

And it tastes horrible. Really quite nasty. Try spending every waking moment for several days tasting it - if it weren't for the fact that its saving me from indescribable agony I wouldn't put up with it. But as Molecule of the Day notes, eugenol is not that dissimilar in chemical structure from vanillin, and vanilla is one of my favorite flavors. Artificial vanilla flavoring used to be synthesized using eugenol as a starting point, although now different methods (in the 60's the predominant one was based on Canadian wood-pulp) are used (at least, thats what wikipedia claims).

To think I would never have known all this had it not been for those damn impacted wisdom teeth!

[Image of eugenol structure taken from the Molecule of the Day eugenol entry]