Garlic has long been used medicinally, most recently for its cardiovascular, antineoplastic, and antimicrobial properties. Sulfur compounds, including allicin, appear to be the active components in the root bulb of the garlic plant. Studies show significant but modest lipid-lowering effects and antiplatelet activity. Significant blood pressure reduction is not consistently noted. There is some ...

Garlic (Allium sativum) is well known for its beneficial effects on health and particularly for its chemopreventive potential against cancer. The present study was designed to compare the chemopreventive efficacies of several garlic powders with various levels of alliin, a precursor of active sulfur compounds. For this purpose we used the medium-term hepatocarcinogenesis protocol (resistant hep...

The aim of the study was to comparatively evaluate the antibacterial activity of six Indian plant extracts and 0.2% chlorhexidine against clinical strains of Streptococcus mutans, which were isolated from the plaque samples of 45 pediatric patients. Six plant extracts were prepared in three different forms, namely aqueous extracts, organic solvent-based extracts and crude (raw) extracts. The an...

Sir—In their recent article, Piscitelli et al. [1] advise that " patients receiving saqui-navir as their sole protease inhibitor should avoid using garlic supplements " [1, p. 238]. In their study, healthy volunteers who received the antiretroviral drug sa-quinavir and a garlic supplement exhibited a significant decline in plasma levels of saquinavir. As one reason for the decline in systemic l...

Sir—In their recent article, Piscitelli et al. [1] advise that " patients receiving saqui-navir as their sole protease inhibitor should avoid using garlic supplements " [1, p. 238]. In their study, healthy volunteers who received the antiretroviral drug sa-quinavir and a garlic supplement exhibited a significant decline in plasma levels of saquinavir. As one reason for the decline in systemic l...

Garlic viruses often occur in mixed infections under field conditions. In this study, garlic samples collected in three geographical areas of Brazil were tested by Dot-ELISA for the detection of allexiviruses using monoclonal specific antibodies to detect Garlic virus A (GarV-A), Garlic virus B (GarV-B), Garlic virus C (GarV-C) and a polyclonal antiserum able to detect the three virus species m...

When garlic (Allium sativum) was administered to rat per os simultaneously with cadmium, methylmercury and phenylmercury to detect the protective effect against the heavy metal poisoning, accumulation of heavy metals in liver, kidneys, bone and testes were decreased, and histopathological damages and the inhibition of serum alkaline phosphatase activities by heavy metals were reduced. Such effe...

Garlic is a common spicy flavouring agent also used for certain therapeutic purposes. Garlic's effects on blood glucose have been the subject of many clinical and animal studies, however, studies reporting hypoglycemic effects of garlic in humans are conflicting. A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify relevant trials of garlic or garlic extracts on markers of glycemic contr...

Protein glycation involves formation of early (Amadori) and late advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) together with free radicals via autoxidation of glucose and Amadori products. Glycation and increased free radical activity underlie the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. This study investigated whether aged garlic has more potent antiglycation and antioxidant properties compared to fres...

Two garlic subspecies (n = 11), Allium sativum L. var. opioscorodon (hardneck) and Allium sativum L. var. sativum (softneck), were evaluated for their free amino acid composition. The free amino acid content of garlic samples analyzed ranged from 1121.7 to 3106.1 mg/100 g of fresh weight (mean = 2130.7 +/- 681.5 mg/100 g). Hardneck garlic had greater methiin, alliin, and total free amino acids ...