Cloves are the small reddish-brown, unripe flower buds from the tropical evergreen tree known as Syzygium aromaticum. The dried buds have been used since ancient times in many cultures for culinary, medicinal and even decorative purposes.

A necklace of cloves was discovered in a tomb alongside a mummy in Egypt, and during the Han-Dynasty (220-206 BC) in China, court officials were required to hold whole cloves in their mouths to sweeten their breath whilst addressing the Emperor.

Later in Europe, doctors breathed through clove-filled leather beaks believing it would ward off the plague, and German herbalists also used clove in a treatment for gout.
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Black seed is a cold pressed vegetable oil derived from the seeds of the bushy, flowering plant Nigella sativa. The plant is known by a wide range of pseudonyms including fennel flower, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, onion seed, and in the USA it is known as charnushka, which is derived from Russian.

Even more confusingly, both the seeds of the plant and the derived oil are sometimes referred to as black cumin or black caraway. This illustrates the problems you can encounter when using the ’common’ names of plants or oils. 
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