Cloves were used by the Chinese well before our times for culinary and medicinal purposes. The ”spice route” leading to the ”Land of Serica” (China) introduced it to the Romans who used to make edible meat that was often gamy. Plinys criticised cloves and peppers ”that they only appealed via their bitterness”. The Greek doctor Askesios did not agree: ”Clove oil has a nice smell that helps digestion considerably.” The clove tree was introduced in Europe by the Arabs, however it was the Portuguese who discovered the Moluccas in 1424 who had the monopoly. The administrator of the Ile de France, now Mauritius, acquired some plants and the acclimatised them first on his island and then in the Antilles. The use of clove was often considered a manifestation of insolent luxury: Dante criticised the Sienese in his Inferno ”the expensive habit of seasoning with cloves”. All throughout the world cloves are chewed to improve the breath and prevent dental infections.