Homemade Clove & Cinnamon Mouthwash Recipe

Here we make a simple homemade cinnamon mouthwash recipe with cinnamon sticks, cloves, fresh mint and salt. If you’re online searching for DIY natural mouthwash recipes, then chances are you already know about the downsides of powerful antiseptic mouthwashes.

Below I briefly share about the dangers of commercial antiseptic mouthwashes, share step-by-step directions for a great DIY natural mouthwash recipe, and then I share a bit about the recipe’s ingredients.

Enjoy!

Antiseptic Mouthwash Linked To Heart Health Risks

Because of heart health risks associated with antiseptic mouthwash, we’ve just started making our own natural mouthwashes.

Here is Nathan Bryan, Ph.D on heart health risks associated with antiseptic mouthwash use:

“Poor oral hygiene, the use of antiseptic mouthwash or antibiotics can kill these commensal bacteria and disrupt nitric oxide production putting patients at risk for CVD.

For example, there is strong data that demonstrates that antiseptic mouthwashes may eliminate “bad breath,” but at the same time, they raise a significant risk of killing “good”, i.e. beneficial, oral bacteria that in turn, raises blood pressure.

The rise, as much as 26 mm Hg, causes essential hypertension in healthy individuals.”

– Nathan Bryan, Ph.D

Step-By-Step Clove & Cinnamon DIY Mouthwash Recipe Directions

This Clove and Cinnamon mouthwash is the first of the handful of natural mouthwash recipes we’ve been trying out. It’s extremely easy and fast to make.

It’s basically a decoction.

You have to simmer the ingredients for 20 minutes.

I have a post on the differences between infusions, teas and decoctions goes more into it, but all a decoction is is when you simmer plant parts in the water for a while (as opposed to teas that get steeped not simmered).

Cinnamon you would think operates the same, but it is actually able to be infused or steeped just as tea. However, cinnamon can also be decocted. So these both are decocted in this recipe, while the mint is infused at the very end.

Other than that, just let it cool down a bit and it’s ready to bottle up and keep in your bathroom for daily usage.

Make sure to lid the pot.

In order to capture all the beneficial volatile oils within the clove and cinnamon while it decocts/simmers, you need to cover the pot. (I’ll update the images to accomodate this, but I want to alert anyone who reads this now first).

About The Homemade Clove Mouthwash Recipe Ingredients

We’ll wrap up this post with a closeup image of the ingredients used in this mouthwash recipe.

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Is Cinnamon Good For Oral Hygiene?

Cinnamon is known as a “spice”.

When the inner bark strips of the Cinnamomum tree are dried out, they coil into rolls which we know as cinnamon sticks. 

Why Cinnamon for mouthwash recipes?

The following quote is from a PubMed Central review on cinnamon’s applications in dentistry:

Cinnamon EO, cinnamon extracts, and pure compounds show significant antimicrobial activities against oral pathogens and could be beneficial in caries and periodontal disease prevention, endodontics, and candidiasis treatment.

– S. Yanakiev, Effects of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp.) in Dentistry: A Review

Cassia vs Ceylon Cinnamon

You’ll need to choose between Ceylon and Cassia. Both work great for this homemade mouthwash. Cassia has a stronger flavor, while Ceylon is more mild and sweet.

Ceylon is better to use medicinally because it has less coumarin, something that can be bad for you if you have too much. The sticks I have here on this clove and cinnamon mouthwash recipe are Cassia.

Where To Buy Organic Cinnamon Sticks?

Just like you will find with cloves and Himalayan pink salt, where you source your cinnamon will matter. Luckily, there are several reputable suppliers you can find online.

CEYLON

These guys say they harvest their cinnamon sticks from a USDA certified organic farm in Sri Lanka:

CASSIA

Starwest Botanicals has a good-quality Cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmanii) product.

It will give your mouthwash a nice kick moreso than the Ceylon, in case that is something you miss from the antiseptic washes.

What About Cloves? Why Use Them For A Mouthwash?

Mostly well known for adding unique flavor to meals, cloves are also used for oral care herbal recipes such as with this homemade clove and cinnamon mouthwash recipe.

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) is a tropical tree that comes from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia.

Cloves are the dried flower buds harvested from the Clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum). They’re harvested while still in bud form, and once dried, these clove tree flower buds become the signature spice we know today as clove.

Quick Clove History: This extremely popular spice is said to originate from the “Spice Islands” near China. After the plant’s discovery, it made its way through the rest of Asia and into Europe and the west.

Beneficial Compounds Within Clove

Dried cloves are ground or used whole just as often outside of the kitchen, for a variety of wellness applications.

I mentioned above some of clove’s top compounds, with Eugenol being the distinct and main volatile oil found in clove. In this PubMed review on Clove essential oil and its applications, they mention a ratio and then list out several on the lower end that are also beneficial.

Eugenol is the major compound, accounting for at least 50%. The remaining 10–40% consists of eugenyl acetate, β-caryophyllene, and α-humulene.

From dental health to digestive, respiratory, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and more, when it has anything to do with oral health, clove buds are a top choice herb.

Where To Buy Organic Cloves?

Like with the cinnamon, do make sure you source 100% organically grown cloves.

You can find various organic spice brands on Amazon or other online marketplaces.

Simply Organic is one affordable and reputable spice brand that sell organic whole cloves.

I like these from Starwest Botanicals better.

It’s one-pound bag of good quality S. aromatyzum.

A Powerful Oral Care Combo: Clove & Cinnamon

An article titled by Texas-based Dental Group titled 6 Essential Oils For Healthy Gums & Teeth shares how both Cinnamon and Clove are excellent medicinal herbs for oral health.

Clove is especially essential for oral health. Clinical research indicates that clove oil can relieve tooth pain and bad breath, as well as help reduce gum disease! Clove oil also has the natural ability to restrict the development of bacteria and can help fight mouth and throat infections.

– Dental Group Of Amarillo

As you can see, these two ingredients are ideal for oral care products.

And these are just two of many potential mouthwash ingredients!

Let’s take a look at Himalayan Salt next..

Himalayan Salt

Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan, from the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world today that was discovered by Alexander the Great in 320BC.

And in case you are wondering, Canada has the largest one; the Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario.

Not All Himalayan Sea Salt Is Equal

With increased demand in recent years, more salt is needed from these mines. That’s where the issues with this salt comes from. From their method of explosive mining. How they mine it. Let alone what they do to it during processing.

So what they do is explode huge rocks of it out and then they sell these massive crude pink salt rocks to whoever wants them. It just gets worse from here as more explosives can be used to break these apart.

Regardless of the controversy, we’ve been transitioning away from Himalayan salt after learning about Celtic sea salt.

If you do purchase Himalayan salt, find a reputable company.

SaltWorks has a good Himalayan pink salt.

Final Thoughts

In this DIY mouthwash recipe post we shared why we no longer use antiseptic mouthwashes, and instead choose natural oral care solutions like this easy DIY cinnamon and clove mouthwash.

This mouthwash is not too minty though. It’s salty and earthy.

So if brown, semi-salty herbal waters throw you off as a mouthwash, you may prefer one that resembles more closely the antiseptic mouthwashes you’d grown accustomed to. But chances are anyone reading this will not think twice about this stuff.

We hope to explore and experiment with new versions of this one as well as other variations using clove, cinnamon and other medicinal herbs for oral health. Perhaps we can get one that is powerfully minty, next.

We’ll update this post with links to future natural mouthwash recipes as we make them.

Thanks for coming by the Sprouting Fam blog!

Let us know if you have any questions on this Cinnamon Mouthwash Recipe!

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Last update on 2025-06-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API