Garlic's Secret Weapon: Secondary Metabolites (thiosulphanates)
You and I have been discussing Garlic and its use for a sore throat, colds and flu in the past week.
Because let's face it - there is truly nothing worse than a sore throat. It is the kind of pain that very few things work to ease it up, and it is a constant weird pain.
Garlic, though, can get to it, and surprisingly, fairly easily. So we ask, every so often, what the heck works so well in this garlic???
Garlic is a powerful medicinal food. The Allium family is one of the most successful genera in the plant kingdom with 700 different species in the family. One of the major reasons for their success as a genus is that they have developed a very effective means of protecting themselves from pests such as bacteria, protozoa, fungus, molds and larger critters like insects and foraging animals.
Exactly what you need to protect yourself against infections.
Instead of thorns, they use secondary metabolites for protection. What are these incredibly effective secondary metabolites?
They are specialized constituents with a great influence on the environment of the plant - not only do these secondary metabolites protect the plants - they help them thrive.
When the Allium genera (garlic, onions, leeks, etc.) are damaged or attacked by a pest, they produce a group of compounds (secondary metabolites) called thiosulphanates, which have very strong antimicrobial properties.
The predominate thiosulphanate in fresh crushed garlic is allicin—containing about 70% to 80%. The other thiosulphanates also have antimicrobial properties but we tend to focus on allicin because it is abundant and most importantly the best potent antimicrobial as measure by MICs (minimum inhibitory concentration).
In fact, these beautiful secondary metabolites have shown excellent health-promoting and disease preventing effects on many of our complex chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, blood pressure, and diabetes, through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and lipid lowering properties, as demonstrated in plethora of in vitro, in vivo, and clinical studies (Ansary, J., 2020).
We have also discussed that research shows Garlic creates a more harmonious balance between different groups of organisms by not letting opportunist organisms flourish. Taken as a one capsule daily, or even every other day, an equilibrium is achieved between different communities of organisms, boosting your immune system and a feeling of well-being.
Yours as always,
Dohrea
References
- Ansary, J., Forbes-Hernández, T. Y., Gil, E., Cianciosi, D., Zhang, J., Elexpuru-Zabaleta, M., ... & Battino, M. (2020). Potential health benefit of garlic based on human intervention studies: A brief overview. Antioxidants, 9(7), 619.
My Research: Peace
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Kant was so ahead of his time, understanding democracy in 1784, what peace can actually look like, and what would the foundational universal laws that govern a 'perpetual peace' - the Enlightenment essay we have been reading together was foundational in that it takes maturity to enact a true freedom for individuals to express their views but in a way that honors and respects all individuals, which is quite difficult to achieve, isn't it? We still are struggling all over the world to be and let be. In the next few months, I'd like to chat about these amazing universal laws that prepare us for this lasting peace.