Creating A Better World

Garlic’s health benefits and medicinal properties have long been known, it’s considered an herbal “wonder drug”, with a reputation in folklore for preventing everything from the cold and flu to the plague.
photo credit: Living in Monrovia

Garlic is rich in a variety of powerful sulfur-containing compounds including thiosulfinates, sulfoxides and dithiins.  While these compounds are responsible for garlic’s characteristically pungent odor, they are also the source of many of its health-promoting effects. In addition, garlic is an excellent source of manganese, a very good source of vitamin B6 and vitamin C and a good source of selenium.

Allicin, one of the sulfur-compounds responsible for garlic’s odor, is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that joins forces with vitamin C to help kill harmful microbes. In research studies, allicin has been shown to be effective not only against common infections like colds, flu, stomach viruses, and Candida yeast, but also against powerful pathogenic microbes including tuberculosis and botulism.

One study conducted at the University of California Irvine Medical Center and published in the December 2003 issue of Nutrition showed that garlic juice, even when diluted up to 1:128 of the original juice, demonstrates significant antibacterial activity against many pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant strains such as methicillin- and ciprofloxacin-resistant staphylococci, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and ciprofloxacin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A second study found that garlic was able to inhibit methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA) from human patients that was injected into laboratory animals.  (MSRA is one of the antibiotic resistant bacteria whose incidence has risen dramatically in recent years in hospitals.)

In modern naturapathy, garlic is used as a treatment for intestinal worms and other intestinal parasites, both orally and as an anal suppository. Garlic cloves are used as a remedy for infections (especially chest problems), digestive disorders, and fungal infections such as thrush.

In olden days, Garlic was used specificly for leprosy. It was also believed that it had  beneficial results in cases of smallpox, if cut small and applied to the soles of the feet in a linen cloth, renewed daily.

It is stated that during an outbreak of infectious fever in certain poor quarters of London, early last century, the French priests who constantly used Garlic in all their dishes, visited the worst cases and stayed healthy, while the English clergy caught the infection, and in many instances fell victims to the disease

In 1858, Louis Pasteur observed garlic’s antibacterial activity.

It was used as an antiseptic to prevent gangrene during World War I and World War II.
Honey, Garlic, & Vinegar: Home Remedies & Recipes : The People’s Guide to Nature’s Wonder Medicines
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