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Age your garlic for longevity!

2012; Wiley; Volume: 205; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1748-1716.2012.02424.x

1748-1716

Pontus B. Persson, Anja Bondke Persson,

Genomics, phytochemicals, and oxidative stress

Garlic's marvels are so plentiful that it is becoming difficult to discern fact from fiction (Aviello et al. 2009). King Tut's tomb is supposed to contain garlic remnants (Staba et al. 2001), and legend has it that already over 5000 years ago, the slaves who built the pyramids were fed garlic to ward off infections, and thus remnants of the herb could be discovered in King Tut's tomb. Garlic's antibacterial activity appears to have become forgotten until Louis Pasteur rediscovered it in 1858 (Sivam 2001). In the twentieth century, throughout both World Wars, garlic was used as an antiseptic to prevent gangrene. So what can be new? In this edition of Acta Physiologica (Oxford), Park et al. systematically show that aged red garlic extracts (ARGE) has anti-inflammatory effects in LPS-treated mice. LPS is part of the wall of Gram-negative bacteria and markedly activates the immune system, mostly via macrophages, which form NO in response to inducible NOS stimulation. HO-1 (heme oxygenase-1) counteracts the inflammatory macrophage answer, by limiting the NO increase. It is by stimulating HO-1 that ARG acts anti-inflammatory as demonstrated in Park et al.'s study. These findings can have a significant impact. China alone produces approximately 10.5 million tonnes of garlic each year. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there is no other vegetable that is in such strong sustained demand in the United States as garlic. Much of the increase in demand has been attributed to both an increased affinity for its flavour and the promotion of its health benefits. Acta Physiologica has published various studies on effects that can be affected beneficially by garlic, such as antioxidant effects (Saxena et al. 2010, Damon 2011, Kuczeriszka et al. 2011, Morabito et al. 2011, Petersen et al. 2012), cholesterol reduction (Yajima et al. 2011) and blood pressure lowering (Toska 2010, Vlasova et al. 2010, Blain et al. 2011, Edwards et al. 2011, Kingma et al. 2011, McIlveen et al. 2011, Yu & Wang 2011, Zicha et al. 2011a,b). Digestive disorders are thought to improve, as do fungal infections such as thrush, and garlic has been found to enhance thiamine absorption. Thus, it could even be helpful for treating Beriberi. What may cause this herb to take off as a lifestyle drug is the proposed increase in testosterone production by garlic. In fact, garlic has already been named vegetable Viagra (Petrovska & Cekovska 2010)! On the other hand, who is not aware of garlic's adverse effect of causing halitosis, bad breath? However, did you know that this pungent ‘garlicky’ smell of your breath and sweat is because of allyl methyl sulphide, a gas absorbed by blood during the metabolism of garlic? I recall a hot day in the crammed subway, where a garlic enthusiast's smell became intolerable. Suddenly, a suffering person next to the odour source called out: Garlic doesn't really make you live longer, you simply look older! Unfortunately, washing the skin with soap is not very successful in limiting the smell. More promising is sipping milk while you consume the garlic, and please mind: mixing garlic with milk in the mouth before swallowing is more effective than drinking milk afterwards. Our highlighted study by Park et al. shows that ARGE had marked anti-inflammatory effects on acute pulmonary inflammation in vivo and in vitro. Considering the options in treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Brusselle et al. 2011, Martinez et al. 2011, Rabe & Wedzicha 2011) and asthma (Myers & Tomasio 2011, Szefler 2011), ARGE may become a welcomed treatment component. Fresh garlic may lack this effect as certain phytochemicals are transformed to sulphurous compounds resulting in cysteine derivates (Imai et al. 1994, Luz et al. 2007), explaining why only ARGE may be such a potent compound in battling acute pulmonary inflammation.