GARLIC (Alium sativum) is a member of the Liliaceae, originating in central Asia, which is now grown worldwide. A bulb containing individual cloves encased in a white skin, garlic is one of the earliest recorded medicinal herbs.
The Codex Ebers, an Egyptian medical papyrus dating from 1500BC mentions garlic as a cure for hysteria, hypertension, insect bites, parasites and tumours. It is also referred to in ‘materia medica’ of early Sanskrit and Chinese origin from the first millennia BC. Hippocrates, Aristotle, and later Pliny all mention the herb for its anti-septic and anti-bacterial properties. Sir John Harrington, writing in the early l7th Century, summarised garlic in the following way:
“Garlic then hath power to save from death
Bear with it though it maketh unsavoury breath,
And scorn not garlic like some that think
It only maketh men blink, drink and stink’’.
A testament to the efficacy of the herb arises from an incident that occurred during the great plague of Marseilles in 1721. Four condemned prisoners were ordered to bury the dead but were found to be immune from the disease, which baffled the medical authorities. It transpired that they were consuming a daily draught of garlic macerated in red wine to protect themselves. This became known as ‘four thieves vinegar’ and is still obtainable today in French pharmacies.
Before the development of antibiotics, garlic was the medical practitioner’s favoured treatment for infections ranging from tuberculosis to typhoid; until the First World War it was used as a wound dressing to prevent the onset of gangrene.
Garlic contains a number of sulphurous compounds, the main ones being allicine and the enzyme alliinase, as well as high concentrations of trace minerals (particularly selenium) and vitamins.
Modern medical research has concentrated on its ability to lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol and there is substantial evidence for its potency to reduce heart attacks, strokes, and the onset of arteriosclerosis. Its anti-bacterial properties, which inhibit the growth of certain microbes, have been compared favourably with such antibiotics as penicillin, streptomycin and others. In fact, it has been found that garlic could inhibit the growth of bacteria that had proved resistant to some modern antibiotics.
Garlic is powerfully anti-fungal, most significantly in the case of Candida albicans, a scourge of women on the contraceptive pill. A Chinese study showed it to be effective in the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis, a most serious fungal infection. It is also anti-viral and will destroy herpes and influenza viruses.
Since the era of the ancient Greeks, garlic has been known to display anti-cancer and immune-enhancing effects. In community-based studies, it has been found that populations that consume garlic on a daily basis show a lower incidence of gastric cancers than those that do not. Human studies show that the plant inhibits the formation of nitrosamines, cancer-causing compounds, formed during the digestive process.
Many people are deterred from consuming garlic because of the unpleasant odour, which emanates from the compound allicin, but the benefits far outweigh any concern about this. The smell can be eliminated by chewing parsley, which will give an additional vitamin boost.
Wild garlic (allium ursinum), which is very common in Cyprus, is rendered into a juice which features in many slimming preparations and is used to treat asthma and digestive problems.
Finally, a more unconventional use of garlic was to be found in mid-thirties America, when gangland assassins would coat their bullets in garlic to create extra pain on penetration.
There is no evidence to support the claim that garlic will ward off vampires, unless, of course, you breathe on them.
By Alexander McCowan
Next week Feverfew
