Botanical name : Allium sativum
Family : Amarylllidaceae
Garlic (Allium sativa) is a plant with long, flat grass-like leaves and a papery hood around the flowers. The greenish white or pink flowers are found grouped together at the end of a long stalk. The stalk rises directly from the flower bulb, which is the part of the plant used as food and medicine.
Chemical constituents:
Medicinal plants have been used from ancient times for human healthcare as in the form of traditional medicines, spices, and other food components. Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an aromatic herbaceous plant that is consumed worldwide as food and traditional remedy for various diseases. It has been reported to possess several biological properties including anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, antidiabetic, renoprotective, anti-atherosclerotic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antihypertensive activities in traditional medicines. A. sativum is rich in several sulfur-containing phytoconstituents such as alliin, allicin, ajoenes, vinyldithiins, and flavonoids such as quercetin. Extracts and isolated compounds of A. sativum have been evaluated for various biological activities including antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities among others. This review examines the phytochemical composition, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacological activities of A. sativum extracts as well as its main active constituent, allicin i.e. phytoconstituents, allicin, pharmacokinetics are main contents
Properties : Garlic is known as Lasuna, which signifies, destroyer of diseases. The fresh plants of Garlic are used as edible food substance and also the dried cloves are on ripening to alleviate the disorders rationally in TIM. Garlic is recommended as physical strength promoting, intellect promoting and as aphrodisiac to maintain healthy state of life. Its properties like- unctuous, hot, pungent, heavy has been described to alleviates skin diseases, intra abdominal tumor, chronic rhinitis, hemicranias, epilepsy, fainting etc. Its continuous use causes internal hemorrhage.
Benefits :
1. Garlic contains compounds with potent medicinal properties
Garlic is a plant in the Allium (onion) family. It’s closely related to onions, shallots, and leaks. Each segment of a garlic bulb is called a clove. There are about 10–20 cloves in a single bulb, give or take. Garlic is a popular ingredient in cooking due to its strong smell and delicious taste.
However, throughout ancient history, people widely usedTrusted Source garlic for its health and medicinal properties. There is documented evidence of its use by many major civilizationsTrusted Source, including the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Indians.Scientists now know that most of garlic’s health benefits are due to the formation of sulfur compounds when you chop, crush, or chew a garlic.
2. Garlic is highly nutritious but has very few calories
Calorie for calorie, garlic is incredibly nutritious.A single clove (about 3 grams) contains 4.5 caloriesTrusted Source, 0.2 grams of protein, and 1 gram of carbs.Garlic is a good source of several nutrients, notably:
manganese
vitamin B6
vitamin C
selenium
fiber
Garlic also contains trace amounts of various other nutrients.
Garlic can help protect against illness, including the common cold
Aged garlic extract (AGE) can boost your immune system, during the cold and flu season experienced less severe symptoms .
In garlic may have antiviral propertiesTrusted Source. In addition to boosting your immune system, it may help prevent viruses from entering host cells or from replicating within your cells.
The active compounds in garlic can reduce blood pressure
cardiovascular diseases like heart attack and stroke are responsible for more deaths than almost any other condition.High blood pressure, or hypertension, is one of the most important factors that may lead to these diseases.
Allicin in garlic may limit the production of angiotensin II, a hormone that increases blood pressure. It may also relax your blood vessels, allowing blood to flow more easily.
Garlic improves cholesterol levels, which may lower the risk of heart disease
Garlic can lower total and LDL (bad) cholesterol. The authors recommend that people with high cholesterol eat more taking garlic supplements for more than 2 months could reduce your LDL by up to 10%.
But garlic does not seem to have the same effect on triglyceride levels, another risk factor for heart disease.Research also suggests that garlic does not have an effect on HDL (good) cholesterol.
