Natural Insight
Don’t Gag at Garlic
By Sabeen Faquir
Garlic, however pungent, is medicinally wonderful. Imagine, it is as aromatic as it is beneficial for arterial health, free-radical scavenging, and immunity.
Garlic is known to hinder blood clot formations and relax blood vessels. Like aspirin, garlic utilizes the COX enzyme pathway. It prevents the formation of thromboxanes which are used in clotting and closing blood vessels. This is an irreversible effect of garlic. Garlic also dilates blood vessels (Phaneuf). In one study, they found taking 2 capsules of 240mg capsules of aged garlic lowered blood pressure by 11.8+/-5.4mmHg over 12 weeks (Ried et al). Garlic is also known to lower total serum cholesterol (Pande, Srinivasan).
Garlic is a powerful anti-oxidant. It is these abilities which attribute garlic to help prevent the start of cancer (Phaneuf). It was found that garlic with the highest amount of allicin (an important sulfurous molecule of garlic), flavonoids, and phenolic compounds helped hinder tumor growth in mice when the mice were “injected intraperitoneally with fresh, microwaved, 3-month-old, leaves, and boiled garlic extracts, respectively, at 20 mg/kg/0.2 mL.” It was found that fresh or microwaved garlic proved to shrink tumor size more effectively than other forms of garlic. Heating reduced its effects by a large margin. Garlic’s antioxidant capacity is correlated to its anticancer activities (Shirzad et al). For those who may not know, allicin breaks down into the other beneficial molecules of garlic (Phaneuf).
Allicin is even a potent anti-microbial. In vitro studies of allicin proved it can inhibit Eimeria tenella sporozoites which cause Chicken coccidiosis (Alnassan et al). Chicken coccidiosis is a parasitic infection of chickens that can damage their gut wall and lead to death. Chicken coccidiosis cannot be transmitted to humans. Another antimicrobial molecule of garlic, ajoene, was found to inhibit communication of pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This inhibition prevented the growth of the bacteria in vitro and in vivo (Jakobsen et al). Other constituents of garlic have effect against sepsis. Particularly, they can inhibit reactive oxygen species and proinflammatory cytokines like TNF- alpha, Interleukin 1Beta and Interleukin 6 (Lee et al).
If you are interested in doing garlic to benefit your health, try taking an oral supplement with allicin, the aromatic compound attributed with garlic’s effectiveness. But, deodorized or odor free supplements may not do the trick because in order for allicin to be produced from garlic, a molecule called alliin has to be converted by an alliinase enzyme. The enteric coating of deodorized or odor free supplements prevents the conversion of alliin into allicin (Phaneuf). Also, garlic oil supplements do not contain allicin so don’t take them under the misconception (Allicinfacts.com). Aged garlic may be a good alternative but know the aging process reduces the antioxidant capacity of garlic (Shirzad et al).
Sources:
Phaneuf, Holly. Herbs Demystified: A Scientist Explains How the Most Common Herbal Remedies Really Work. Da Capo Press. 2005
K Ried, O R Frank, and N P Stocks. Aged garlic extract reduces blood pressure in hypertensives: a dose–response trial. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2013) 67, 64–70
Shubhra Pande, Krishnapura Srinivasan. Potentiation of the hypolipidemic influence of dietary tender cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) by garlic in cholesterol fed rats. Food Chemistry. Volume 133, Issue 3, 1 August 2012, Pages 798–805
Hedayatollah Shirzad, Fatemeh Taji, and Mahmoud Rafieian-Kopaei. Journal of Medicinal Food. September 2011, 14(9): 969-974.
Alnassan AA1, Thabet A, Daugschies A, Bangoura B. In vitro efficacy of allicin on chicken Eimeria tenella sporozoites. Parasitology research. 2015 Aug 13
Tim Holm Jakobsen, Maria van Gennip, Richard Kerry Phipps, Meenakshi Sundaram Shanmugham, Louise Dahl Christensen, Morten Alhede, Mette Eline Skindersoe, Thomas Bovbjerg Rasmussen, Karlheinz Friedrich, Friedrich Uthe, Peter strup Jensen, Claus Moser, Kristian Fog Nielsen, Leo Eberl, Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen, David Tanner, Niels Hiby, Thomas Bjarnsholt, and Michael Givskov. Ajoene, a Sulfur-Rich Molecule from Garlic, Inhibits Genes Controlled by Quorum Sensing. Antimicrob. Agents and Chemotherapy. May 2012 vol. 56 no. 5 2314-2325
Lee SK, Park YJ, Ko MJ, Wang Z, Lee HY, Choi YW, Bae YS. A novel natural compound from garlic (Allium sativum L.) with therapeutic effects against experimental polymicrobial sepsis. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 2015 Aug 28;464(3):774-9
AllicinFacts. How to Select a Garlic Supplement. http://www.allicinfacts.com/garlic_supplement/ Accessed 8/30/2015
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Sabeen is currently an MPH student at NOVA Southeastern University. She is an evidence-based health writer able to decipher and convey first hand research to an informed audience. Sabeen was inspired to write about natural alternatives to health after working for a science and health information dispensing company that also sold vitamins and supplements.
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Disclaimer: The content of this article is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure disease.