More recently, garlic was used in the First and Second World War both as an oral medicine to treat battleground infections and as a wound dressing. It was a great success in both applications.

Modern medicine is now investigating garlic’s traditional properties and, surprisingly, several of them are standing up to scientific scrutiny. Clinical ecologists are particularly interested in it as an antifungal, detoxifier and immune-system regulator.

ANTIBIOTIC ACTIVITY
Louis Pasteur commented on the bactericidal (bacteria – killing) effect of fresh garlic juice when dropped onto growing bacterial colonies. Over the years studies have shown that fresh garlic juice inhibits the growth of Staphylococcus (wound infection), Brucella (brucellosis), Salmonella (Typhoid) and several other bactria. The action was comparable in vitro (in the laboratory) with that of several antibiotics including penicillin, strepto-mycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and erythromycin. 

The action of garlic on yeast and fungi is perhaps even more dramatic. One study showed that growth of all soil fungi was totally inhibited by an aqueous garlic extract. Medically-important fungi and yeasts (notably Candida albicans are also inhibited and then killed by increasing concentrations.

This is particularly useful, since the range of antifungal agents available to the practitioner is far smaller than the range of antibacterial agents, resulting in fewer alternative treatment regimes if complications occur. Garlic, of course, has far less risk of side-effects than most antifungals and can be used indefinitely in quite large amounts (the patient’s nearest and dearest permitting!).

IMMUNE-SYSTEM MODULATOR
New scientific data shows that garlic can be a potent immunoregulator. Researcher used mice implanted with transitional carcinoma (cancer) and introduced garlic extract both systemically (into the whole body) and into the actual tumours. They found that the tumours were reused and/or eliminated and that the degree of beneficial effect corresponded with the dosage level and length of garlic treatment.

In humans, garlic has been shown to enhance the activity of natural killer (NK) cells. These are cells that act as part of the immune defence system and can destroy some types of tumour cells.

DETOXIFICATION AND ANTI-OXIDATION ACTIVITIES
Garlic contains significant amounts of vitamins A, C, B1, iron, copper, zinc, calcium and sulphur. It is a rich source of organically-bound selenium and germanium. Nutritionally, selenium is known to aid in detoxifying heavy metals and this may explain why garlic has been shown to be effective in countering lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic poisoning.

There is a growing awareness of the damaging contribution that free radicals make to many degenerative conditions including cancer and ageing (see anti-oxidants). Garlic has been shown to have a free-radical scavenging activity, probably because of the oxidation potential of many of the free sulphur compounds in garlic and also from the selenium, zinc and glutathione found in garlic and known to enhance the concentration of certain antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and gluta-thione peroxidase.

Garlic’s antibacterial and antifingal activities come from allicin and ajoene respectively. Allicin is also responsible for the characteristic odour of garlic.

GARLIC SUPPLEMENTS
There are a variety of garlic supplements currently available from health food shops and chemists. Most of these take the form of ‘garlic pearls’ containing various amounts of garlic oil. There are also garlic tablets that contain dried powered garlic.

Garlic oil contains little allicin and ajoene, due to the heat extraction process: thus a great deal of the antimicrobial function is lost. This type of preparation does not seem to be logical in the light of scientific studies.

Garlic powders and tablets offer greater reliability in ensuring that at least some of the antimicrobial substances are still present. These products can be very variable and some are useless. The best powders are those where he freshly chopped or pureed garlic has not been heated or dried for long periods, thus preserving the antimicrobial components. Best of all are freeze-dried preparations.