Allspice smells like cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg at once, which is where the name comes from. The reason is eugenol, at two thirds to four fifths, the same compound that carries clove. In lab tests it broke open the membranes of eight food-poisoning bacteria and stopped them coordinating their attack.^[1] Reviews credit the plant with antifungal and cell-protecting activity as well.^[2] Like clove, the eugenol makes it a skin irritant that needs low dilution.^[3]