Garlic: Medicinal Food or Nutritious Medicine?. Journal of Medicinal Foods

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Garlic: Medicinal Food or Nutritious Medicine?. Journal of Medicinal

Food

 

Nagourney, RA. Garlic: Medicinal Food or Nutritious Medicine?.

Journal of Medicinal Food. :.

http://www.herbalgram.org/nowfoods/herbclip/review.asp?i=41663

 

Garlic (Allium sativum) boasts a long history of medicinal uses.

Hippocrates (460-375 BC) prescribed garlic for intestinal problems,

wounds, toothaches, and leprosy. Dioscorides' (first century AD)

Materia Medica described garlic as a treatment for parasites, bites,

respiratory infections, and dropsy. Galen (130 AD) aptly named

garlic the common man's cure-all. The United Nations estimates world

garlic production at 2,315,000 tons annually. A member of the lily

family, garlic thrives in sandy clay soils of warmer, sunnier

climates. The chemical composition of the plant can vary according

to soil conditions. In this article, author Robert Nagourney

provides a detailed study of the research on the medicinal

properties of garlic.

 

The characteristic odor and taste of garlic can be attributed to

allicin, a chemically unstable compound that is created when garlic

is crushed, chopped, or chewed. Allicin is the compound responsible

for most of garlic's medicinal activities (Table 2 pg 23) and the

chemical precursor to such pharmacologically active substances as

ajoene, diallyl disulfide (DADS), diallyl trisulfide (DATS), and

sulfur oxide found in processed extracts of garlic. Garlic can be

taken fresh or in the form of a volatile oil, garlic oil macerate,

dried garlic powder, and aged garlic extract. In some studies,

allicin was rendered inactive by boiling.

 

Twenty-two studies referenced in the article demonstrate garlic's

antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties. Some of these

studies indicate garlic's activity against Mycobacterium avium,

Pneumocystis carinii, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex types I

and II, common opportunistic infections in patients with HIV.

 

The author referenced approximately 29 recent studies (including

four meta-analyses of groups of studies) indicating the role of

garlic in the treatment of hypertension, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis

and thrombus formation, and high cholesterol. A garlic-rich diet has

a moderately beneficial effect on blood pressure. Statistically

significant fewer attacks of ventricular fibrillation were also

noted in heart patients. Garlic's effect on atherosclerosis is

attributed to its ability to dissolve fibrin (a component of blood

clots), inhibit platelet aggregation (also responsible for blood

clot formation), and lower serum lipids

like cholesterol. Garlic increases HDL (high density or " good

cholesterol " ) and lowers LDL (low density or " bad cholesterol " ) and

trigylcerides (fats found in serum). One meta-analysis of 28

clinical trials concluded that consumption of one garlic clove a day

could reduced serum lipids by nine percent. Another meta-analysis of

16 trials found an average cholesterol decrease of 12 percent.

 

Epidemiological studies have found significantly fewer cases of

gastric and colon cancers in populations that regularly consume

garlic when compared with populations that do not. Over 29 studies

demonstrated the ability of different chemical constituents of

garlic to inhibit tumor initiation and promotion, induce enzymes

that alter carcinogens in food or toxic substances, as well as alter

mutagenic agents directly (mutagens alter cellular DNA which can

lead to cancer). One animal study found that garlic increased the

life span of mice given a lethal dose of cyclophosphamide (a

chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of cancer) by 70

percent, without disturbing the medication's antitumor effect.

Another animal study found a reduction in hair loss and toxicity to

cells of the urinary tract in animals first treated with a component

of garlic and then treated with cyclophosphamide. These studies

indicate that garlic may play a significant role in the treatment as

well as the prevention of cancer. Garlic also exhibits free radical

scavenging activity, which may help to prevent cellular degeneration

in the aging process.

 

The author concludes that all of the benefits of garlic are found in

its fresh, natural state. According to this author, highly processed

garlic products may not yield allicin and its byproducts. -Leela

Devi, MSN, RN

 

Enclosure Bin #150