Health Benefits of Garlic
Garlic is a plant that belongs to the onion family. The bulb of garlic is made up of smaller oval-oblong shaped bulbs called cloves. Garlic is regarded to as the king of spices.
This plant has been cultivated for almost five thousand years. It grows wild in northern India, Afghanistan, the Mediterranean region and other areas. Unique garlic properties chiefly result from both well-balanced combination of organic substances with amazing healing properties and useful trace minerals content.
Useful Substances in Garlic
Garlic contains a wide range of trace minerals. These include nitrogenous matter, natrium, kalium, calcium and magnesium. It is a source of various acids such as silicic, sulfuric and phosphoric acids.
The chemical composition of garlic also includes vitamins C and D, the B-vitamins, phytosterols, extractive substances, phytoncids and volatile oils. In addition, garlic contains selenium that is known for its antioxidant properties.
Health Benefits of Garlic
In phytotherapy, garlic is used as a remedy with the following effects:
- gastrointestinal
- vitaminizing
- diuretic
- sweating
- cardiovascular
- blood-pressure lowering
- anesthetic and wound healing
- antimicrobial, anthelmintic and antitoxic
- cancer prevention
- brain circulation improvement
Garlic Study
Studies conducted at the University of Southern California Medical Center have found that garlic eliminates glioblastoma cells, or brain cancer cells. Those studies revealed that garlic-based drugs effectively kill malignant tumor cells.
Garlic Cures Naturally
Recently, Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” has published a story about a patient who was in a long coma after suffering blood stroke and who checked out after fifty days at the hospital, completely exhausted by drugs. Instead of taking his medicine, he began to cure himself with garlic. Now, he has fully recovered and is lively. In fact, while helping cure our diseases, all synthetic drugs can cause other health problems. In contrast, the nature gives us many natural products with excellent therapeutic properties, and garlic is no exception.
Garlic Use in Culinary
In culinary, garlic is used as seasoning for soups, sauces, meat, vegetables, mushrooms, fish, eggs as well as for cooking poultry and seafood. Garlic gives pickles and marinades their nice smell and keeps them from perishing. In some countries, garlic stalks come with some salads and meat dishes. Stalks are significantly richer in vitamin C than cloves (280 mg %).
How to Get Rid of Garlic Odor
However, there is one disadvantage of garlic. It causes bad breath. But you can get rid of garlic odor, if you chew a chunk of lemon, parsley stalk or root, or rinse your mouth with natural cow’s milk. If you don’t want your dishes smell too pungent, remove cores of garlic cloves.
