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GARLIC THROUGH HISTORY
 
Garlic has been used as a medicine all along its own history, which is as ancient as humanity. Garlic has been used for millennia in folk medicine of many cultures. Garlic is part of the medicinal heritage of great ancient civilizations: Chinese, Indian, Greek, Egyptian and Roman cultures discovered, consumed and used this scented vegetable as a medicine.
Although its origin comes from Central Asia, Chinese and Egyptians had already used it in distant times: they fed those slaves, who built the pyramids, with garlic because they believed that garlic provided energy.

Garlic was also used for the mummification process and even as a currency unit. Greeks and Romans considered garlic as a powerful and efficient aphrodisiac.
During the Middle Ages garlic was used for keeping witches, vampires and evil spirits away. The bactericide properties of garlic were conclusively proved in the last Second World War, when the juice of this plant was used to disinfect the soldiers' wounds. Garlic (Alliums Sativvum) is an herbaceous vegetable, consisting in a bulb, formed by cloves, that has been used for many centuries because of its flavouring, aromatic and medicinal properties.
Many scientific researches, which have been carried out during the last 15 years, prove what our ancestors stated many years ago: “May your food be your medicine”.
The demonstrated properties of garlic are its fungicidal and bactericidal capacity; lipids and cholesterol levels decrease thanks to garlic consumption and even it helps prevent tumours.

During the past years, there has been a growing awareness of the potential medicinal uses of garlic. A wide assortment of garlic products is available on the market: garlic paste, extracts, powder, pills, etc.
Concerning this issue new interesting questions have arisen: Are we really aware of the compound or compounds that convey garlic its properties? How do the different types of cultivation influence on garlic properties? Is the growing environment a determining factor for the therapeutic properties of garlic?

The nutritional compounds of garlic are proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins, just like in some other vegetables. Recent researches demonstrate that vegetables contain, apart from the mentioned stuff, some others substances named phytonutrients or phytochemicals. Researches estimate correlation between their functions and levels of stability and integrity of cellular structures and DNA in differing stress situations.

Phytonutrients were discovered just one decade ago. Nowadays their importance in relation with food researches and human health is being studied in an intensive manner.
According to this theory, phytonutrients probably convey the same healthy benefits to human cellules and tissue as vegetal cellules do.
Although this research has not reached definitive conclusions yet, Scientifics estimate that sulphured stuff found in garlic is responsible for their medicinal and antibiotic properties. Those sulphured phytonutrients are highly concentrated in bulb, much less in leaves and are not distinguished in the root of the plant.

Uno de los varios fitonutrientes del ajo es el aminoácido azufrado S-alil-cisteína-sulfóxido el cual al exponerse a un estímulo oxidante, como el resultante de un corte o maceración, sufre una serie de cambios enzimáticos y forma alicina que a su vez se degrada a compuestos llamados tiosulfinatos.
One of those garlic phytonutrients is a sulphur amino acid named S-allyl-cisteine sulfoxid. When garlic cloves are cut, crushed, chopped or become wet in a solution, the sulfoxides are very rapidly converted to a new class of compounds, the thiosulfinates. The main thiosulfinate formed is allicin. The formation of thiosulfinates takes place when the cysteine sulfoxides come in contact with the enzyme.