Madagascan oil is required to have a minimum eugenol content of 82 per cent. It is however reported that Indonesian oil, which used to have a reputation for decidedly inferior quality and low eugenol content, now contains 80-82 per cent eugenol and is often preferred to oil originating in Madagascar.
Clove leaf oil has some use in pharmacy, but its importance in this application is declining and has in any case never been great.
The clove leaf oil market is an open one conducted under conditions of private enterprise, and the price has naturally varied a great deal. Madagascan material remained relatively stable in price between 1961 and 1966, ranging from 0.64 to 0.83 per kilogramme. Then during 1967, as clove supplies became more uncertain, the price gradually began to climb, reaching 1.13 per kilogramme in that year. This upward trend continued into 1969 and a peak of 1.55 per kilogramme was reached, but prices then eased and in 1971 stood at 1.31 per kilogramme. In 1972 Madagascan clove leaf oil was offered at 1.25 per kilogramme and by February 1973 its price had fallen to 0.95.
With regard to cinnamon leaf oil, it is interesting to note that prior to 1964 this oil and clove leaf oil vied for position as the preferred source of eugenol and they were used interchangeably depending on whichever was cheaper; clove leaf oil contains 80-85 per cent eugenol and Seychelles cinnamon leaf oil 95 per cent.
When, after 1964, supplies of cinnamon leaf oil from the Seychelles diminished somewhat, the price of the latter oil rose and the field was left entirely to clove leaf oil.
Seychelles oil was quoted between 1961 and 1969, during which period relatively little price movement was experienced: the price range was 0.65- 1.19 per kilogramme on an upward trend.
