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Garlic

Posting Date: 06/30/2002

Garlic is valued in many parts of the world for its pungent aroma and flavor. It is possible that garlic's biological activity and popularity in Mediterranean cuisines contribute to the healthful effects of the "Mediterranean diet."

Most investigations of garlic's health benefits have considered its medicinal rather than culinary uses, however.

Medicinal use of garlic goes back to Greek and Egyptian antiquity. Hippocrates prescribed it for leprosy, toothache, and chest pain. Galen considered it a cure-all readily accessible to everyone.

One old tradition holds that garlic protected four convicts from the plague in Marseilles. They were released from prison in 1721 to bury the dead with the expectation that they would succumb quickly. Their survival was attributed to their habit of imbibing garlic juice mixed with vinegar and wine.

Garlic was used in the nineteenth century for tuberculosis and into World War II for disinfecting battlefield wounds.

It is frequently used in an attempt to ward off or treat the common cold.

The herb is available in many forms, including fresh bulbs, oil-based extracts, dried powder, and steam-distilled extracts.

To maximize the anti-cancer activity of fresh garlic in cooking, crush or mince it at least ten minutes before heating.

Active Ingredients

Sulfur compounds give garlic its characteristic pungent aroma and probably account for some of the flavor. They also appear to be responsible for most of the medicinal properties of this herb, although the trace minerals germanium and selenium may also play a role.

An inert compound, alliin, is converted to allicin once the clove is cut or crushed.

In Europe, standardized extracts of garlic are supposed to contain at least 0.45 percent allicin, a compound that breaks down into most of the active components, such as ajoene.