Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Garlic’s anticlotting action may help prevent heart attack and some kinds of stroke, but medicinal amounts could conceivably cause problems for those with clotting disorders. If you have a clotting disorder, consult your physician before using garlic in medicinal amounts.

Some people with allergies to garlic develop a rash from touching or eating the herb. If the herb gives you a rash, don’t eat it. Garlic-induced upset stomach has also been reported.

Garlic enters the milk of nursing mothers and may cause colic in infants.

It has never been implicated in miscarriage or birth defects.

Other Cautions

For otherwise healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults who do not have clotting disorders, garlic is considered safe even in large amounts.

Garlic should be used in medicinal amounts only in consultation with your doctor. If garlic causes minor discomforts, such as stomach upset, use less or stop using it. Let your doctor know if you experience unpleasant effects or if the symptoms for which the herb is being used do not improve significantly in two weeks.

A Different Kind of Bulb

Garlic grows easily from seeds or cloves. It’s easier to start with cloves. Plant them 2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in early spring for harvesting in fall.

Garlic is cold-tolerant and may be planted up to six weeks before the final frost date. It thrives best in rich, deeply cultivated, well-drained soil. Do not overwater. Full sun produces the largest bulbs, but garlic tolerates some shade. During summer, cut back the flower stalks so the plant devotes all its energy to producing fat aromatic bulbs.

Harvest bulbs in late summer. Store them in cool darkness.

Take care not to bruise the bulbs. Bruising invites mold and insects. You can braid the leaves into a wreath or rope and display it in your kitchen, removing heads as needed.

The Wonder Drug

Family: Amaryllidacae; (includes Onion, Chives, Shallots)

Genus and Species: Allium Sativum

Also known as: Stinking Rose, Healall, Hustic’s or Poor Man’s Treacle

Parts used: Bulb

If the term wonder drug can be applied to any Healing herb, garlic deserves that distinction. It is the world’s second oldest medicine (after ephedra), and still among the best.

Within the Allium genus, garlic is the most powerful (and most thoroughly researched) healer. But traditional herbalists also valued other members of the genus-onions, scallions, leeks, chives, and shallots-though they considered them to be less potent. Modern researchers have reached similar conclusions. Onions have almost as much medicinal value as garlic. Scallions, leeks, chives, and shallots have less.

Caves and Cuneiform

Garlic remains have been found in caves inhabited 10,000 years ago, but the first garlic prescription, chiseled in cuneiform on a Sumerian clay tablet, dates from 3000 s.c. The entire ancient world from Spain to China loved garlic, but no people enjoyed it more than the Egyptians, called “the stinking ones” because of their garlic breath. Egyptians taking solemn oaths swore on garlic in the same way that we swear on the Bible. The herb was found in the tomb of King Tut. And 15 pounds bought a healthy male slave.

Speaking of slavery, garlic played a major role in the lives of the slaves who built Egypt’s pyramids. The Egyptians believed the herb prevented illness and increased strength and endurance. They gave their slaves a daily ration, and the slaves came to revere the herb as their masters did. Legend has it that during the construction of one pyramid, a garlic shortage forced the Egyptians to cut the slaves’ ration. The result was the world’s first recorded strike.

Garlic appeared prominently in the world’s oldest surviving medical text. the Evers Pap/Jrus. It was an ingredient in 22 remedies for headache, insect and scorpion bites, menstrual discomforts, intestinal worms, tumors, and heart problems.

Soon after Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt around 1200 B.C., they complained of missing the finer things of life in bondage-”fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.”

For Combat and Competition

Greek athletes ate garlic before races, and Greek soldiers munched the herb before battle.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses found strength from garlic against the sorceress, Circe.

Greek midwives hung garlic cloves around birthing rooms to safeguard newborns from disease and witchcraft. As the centuries passed, Europeans fastened braided garlic plants to their doorposts to keep evil spirits at bay, a custom which survives today in the garlic braids that hang in many kitchens.

The “Stinking Rose”

Greek and Roman physicians loved garlic. Hippocrates recommended it for infections, wounds, cancer, leprosy, and digestive problems. Dioscorides prescribed it for heart problems. And Pliny listed it in 61 remedies for ailments ranging from the common cold to epilepsy and from leprosy to tapeworm. Many of these uses have been supported by modern science.

But upper-class Greeks and Romans came to hate the “stinking rose.” They viewed garlic breath as a sign of low birth, a belief that lasted well into the 20th century.

Like the Greeks, ancient India’s Ayurvedic healers prescribed garlic for leprosy, a practice that continued for thousands of years. In fact, when India became a British colony and adopted English, leprosy became known as “peelgarlic” because lepers spent so much time peeling cloves and eating them. The Indians also used garlic to treat cancer. Modern research supports garlic’s ability to treat leprosy and prevent certain cancers.

Ambivalence about garlic was rife in medieval Europe. The well-to-do shunned it, but the peasantry consumed huge amounts and viewed it as an all-purpose preventive medicine and cure-all. By the Elizabethan era, the Latin term for antidote, theriaca, had become the English word treacle, meaning panacea, and garlic was commonly called the “rustic’s or poor man’s treacle.”

As the centuries passed, the upper class returned to garlic, but only medicinally, and even then sparingly. Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper endorsed it “as the poor man’s treacle … a remedy for all diseases and hurts.”

America’s 19th-century Eclectic physicians shared the widespread prejudice against garlic’s “strong, offensive smell … and acrimonious, almost caustic taste.” But they conceded its effectiveness in treating colds, coughs, whooping cough, and other respiratory ailments. The Eclectics also believed fresh garlic juice applied to the ear could cure deafness, a recommendation echoed in some present-day herbals.

Russian Penicillin

During World War I, British, French, and Russian army physicians treated infected battle wounds with garlic juice. They also prescribed garlic to prevent and treat amoebic dysentery.

Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928 launched the Age of Antibiotics, and by World War Il, penicillin and sulfa drugs had largely replaced garlic as the treatment of choice for infected wounds. But Russia’s more than 20 million World War II casualties overwhelmed its antibiotic supply. Red Army physicians relied heavily on garlic, which came to be called Russian penicillin.

Modern herbalists recommend garlic (and the other Alliums) for colds, coughs, flu, fever, bronchitis, ringworm, intestinal worms, elevated cholesterol, and liver, gallbladder, and digestive problems.

Garlic does not cure epilepsy or deafness, but an enormous amount of scientific evidence shows beyond doubt that “the poor’s man’s treacle” is an herbal wonder drug.

A Powerful Antibiotic - During World War I, garlic’s success in treating infected wounds and amoebic dysentery (caused by the protozoan Endameba histolytica) clearly showed it had potent antibacterial and anti-protozoan effects, validating thousands of years of herbal tradition.

But garlic’s antibiotic constituent remained a mystery until the 1920s, when researchers at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland isolated alliin (pronounced AL-lee-in) from the herb. Alliin by itself has no medicinal value, but when garlic is chewed, chopped, bruised, or crushed, the alliin comes in contact with a garlic enzyme (allinase). which transforms it into another chemical (allicin), which is a powerful antibiotic.

Since the 1920s, garlic’s broad-spectrum antibiotic properties have been confirmed in literally dozens of animal and human studies. Garlic kills the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, food poisoning, and women’s bladder infections. Garlic also may prevent infection by the influenza virus.

Chinese researchers report success using garlic to treat 21 cases of cryptococcal meningitis, an often fatal fungal infection. And several studies show the herb to be effective in treating the fungi that cause athlete’s foot (Trichophyton mentagrophytes) and vaginal yeast infections (Candida aI6icans).

Heart Disease and Stroke - No standard medications can match garlic when it comes to acting on so many cardiovascular risk factors at the same time. Some drugs reduce blood pressure. Others decrease cholesterol. And some reduce the likelihood of internal blood clots, which trigger heart attacks and some strokes. But garlic does all these things-thanks to allicin and another chemical in the herb (ajoene).

Several studies dating back to the Sandoz experiments confirm garlic’s ability to reduce blood pressure in animals and humans.

More than a dozen journal reports document garlic’s ability to reduce cholesterol. In one experiment published in the British medical journal Lancet, researchers had volunteers eat a meal containing about 4 ounces of butter, which raises cholesterol. Half the group also ate about 9 cloves of garlie. After 3 hours, the average cholesterol level in the nongarlic group increased 7 percent. But in the garlic group, it decreased 7 percent. The researchers concluded: “Garlic has a very significant protective action [against high cholesterol).”

Finally, garlic helps prevent the blood clots that trigger heart attack. One researcher called the herb “at least as potent as aspirin,” which has recently been promoted as an anticlotting heart-attack preventer.

Diabetes - Garlic reduces blood sugar levels in both laboratory animals and humans. Diabetes is a serious condition, requiring professional treatment, but if you have diabetes, there’s no harm in upping your garlic consumption in addition to standard therapy.

Cancer - Tantalizing evidence suggests garlic plays a role in preventing and treating cancer. In a study reported in the journal Science, researchers separated mouse tumor cells into two groups. One group of tumor tissue was left alone. The other was treated with allicin. Then both batches of tumor cells were injected into mice. The mice who received the untreated cells quickly died, but there were no deaths among the mice that received the garlic-treated tumor cells. Since then, other animal studies have shown similar results.

Of course, animal findings don’t necessarily apply to humans, but a study reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests garlic may help prevent human stomach cancer. Researchers analyzed the diets of 1,800 Chinese, including 685 with stomach cancer. Those with the cancer ate considerably less garlic. The researchers concluded a diet high in garlic “can significantly reduce risk of stomach cancer.”

Lead Poisoning - European studies show garlic helps eliminate lead and other toxic heavy metals from the body. Lead interferes with thinking and causes other serious medical problems. Exposure to leaded gasolines has introduced this metal into the body of everyone in North America. Children are particularly susceptible to lead’s effects. Add garlic liberally to spaghetti sauces and other foods children enjoy.

Leprosy - Ancient Ayurvedic healers were onto something when they used garlic to treat leprosy (now called Hansen’s disease). In one study, Indian researchers gave Hansen’s sufferers a garlic ointment and food containing large amounts of the herb. Compared with others who did not receive the herb, those in the garlic group showed significant improvement.

AIDS - Studies that look at garlic as a treatment for AIDS are preliminary but exciting. In one study, seven AIDS patients who took a clove of garlic a day for three months experienced significant increases in immune functions usually destroyed by the disease. And while the patients were taking the garlic, chronic herpes sores cleared up in two of the seven, and in two others chronic diarrhea, a common AIDS symptom, also improved.

You’re undoubtedly anxious to put garlic’s powerful infection-fighting action to the test. But how do you take it? For minor skin infections, garlic juice applied externally may prove sufficient. but unless you’re an experienced herbalist. it’s a mistake to rely exclusively on garlic to treat infectious diseases. No antibiotic, including garlic, kills all disease-causing microorganisms. The standard medical approach is to conduct what’s known as a sensitivity test in which several antibiotics are tested against the germ. The doctor then prescribes the one that works best. You might ask your physician to include garlic in a sensitivity test. Or simply take the herb in addition to standard medication.

Researchers have found that 1 medium-size garlic clove packs the antibacterial punch of about 100,000 units of penicillin. Depending on the type of infection, oral penicillin doses typically range from 600,000 to 1.2 million units. The equivalent in garlic would be about 6 to 12 cloves. It’s best to chew 3 cloves at a time, two to four times a day.

To help reduce blood pressure, cholesterol. and the likelihood of internal blood clots, 3 to 10 cloves of fresh garlic a day is recommended.

Garlic must be chewed, chopped, bruised, or crushed to transform its medicinally inert alliin into antibiotic allicin.

Using It in Cooking

Raw garlic has a sharp, biting flavor; some people experience a burning sensation on the tongue. Cooking eliminates the bite and softens the flavor.

In foods, season to taste. (The cloves’ papery skins peel easily if you smash them with the flat side of a cleaver.)

For an infusion, chop 6 cloves per cup of cool water and steep 6 hours.

For a tincture, soak I cup of crushed cloves per quart of brandy, shake daily for two weeks, then take up to 3 tablespoons a day.

Garlic may be given cautiously to children under age 2.

What about the Smell?

Since 3000 B.C., the main problem with garlic has been its odor. The stinking rose continues to bother some people, but in recent decades, garlic-rich Italian and Asian cuisines have become increasingly popular, and some of the nation’s finest restaurants now proudly serve dishes heavily flavored with garlic. We may well be entering the Age of Garlic Chic, but we’re probably a long way from appreciating garlic breath.

To eliminate garlic breath, try chewing traditional herbal breath fresheners: parsley, fennel, or fenugreek.