Biol. Pharm. Bull. 29(4) 619—622 (2006)

medicinal plant since ancient times. Some epidemiologic reports showed that high intake of Allium vegetables including garlic reduce the risk of thrombus formation by blood platelet condensation effect. And recent studies have validated many of the medicinal properties attributed to garlic and its potential to lower the risk of disease. Garlic has been shown to have antithrombotic activity. It is well known that garlic has been used as folk medicine. The medicinal effects of garlic are summarized in the reviews. Oil-maceration is one method for processing garlic, and this type of garlic product is common as a health food. Ajoene [(Z,E)-4,5,9trithiadodeca-1,6,11-triene-9-oxide], one of the derivatives of allicin, has been found as a major compound in oil-macerated garlic extract (OMGE), and has antithrombotic effect. Stroke is one of the major diseases that were induced by thrombus. Therefore, prevention of thrombus was the first step of stroke repression. Stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) were used an excellent animal model about the studies of hypertension and stroke effects. It was originally isolated from a colony of spontaneous hypertension rats (SHR) and characterized by severe spontaneous hypertension and the development of cerebrovascular disease. Ajoene has been reported the one of the strongest compound having antithrombotic effect. However, no one has demonstrated the preventive effect of ajoene against stroke. Therefore, in this study, we attempted to examine the preventive effect of cerebral injury of ajoene and OMGE using SHRSP.