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Garlic is one of the most popular and irresistable spices in the world, beloved in ancient Egypt, mentioned in the Bible, a basic element of ancient Roman cuisine, and equally popular throughout India and Asia.

Garlic, both raw and cooked, is basic to virtually all of the world's great cuisines. It is used for sauces, pastes, oils, spice mixes, stews, salads, soups and every conceivable kind of vegetable, fish and meat dish.

Garlic also has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity.

Garlic has shown long-term benefit for recurrent yeast infections.

Garlic also supports the cardiovascular system by mildly lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood, inhibiting platelet aggregation, and slowing blood coagulation.

The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends Garlic bulbs for 'Supportive to dietary measures at elevated levels of lipids in blood. Preventative measures for age-dependent vascular changes.'

'Side Effects: In rare instances there may be gastrointestinal symptoms, changes to the flora of the intestine, or allergic reactions. Note:The odor of garlic may pervade the breath and skin.'

'Average daily dosage: 4 g fresh garlic; equivalent preparations. Mode of Administration: The minced bulb and preparations thereof for internal use.'

'Actions: Antibacterial; Antimycotic; Lipid-lowering; Inhibition of platelet aggregation; Prolongation of bleeding and clotting time; Enhancement of fibrinolytic activity.'

Double blind studies in humans have found that garlic can lower blood cholesterol levels in adults by approximately 10%. A four-year clinical trial of 50–80 years old with atherosclerosis showed that regular intake of 900 mg of a standardized garlic supplement reduced arterial plaque by 5–18%. Women seemed to benefit most.

Clinical studies have demonstrated the presence of cancer-inhibiting sulfur compounds in garlic. Garlic's anticarcinogenic effect is confirmed by human population studies, in that populations with a high garlic intake have lower rates of esophageal, stomach, and colon cancer.

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, stimulant. Many marvellous effects and healing powers have been ascribed to Garlic. It possesses stimulant and stomachic properties in addition to its other virtues.'

'As an antiseptic, its use has long been recognized. In the late war it was widely employed in the control of suppuration in wounds. The raw juice is expressed, diluted with water, and put on swabs of sterilized Sphagnum moss, which are applied to the wound. Where this treatment has been given, it has been proved that there have been no septic results, and the lives of thousands of men have been saved by its use.'

'It is sometimes externally applied in ointments and lotions, and as an antiseptic, to disperse hard swellings, also pounded and employed as a poultice for scrofulous sores. It is said to prevent anthrax in cattle, being largely used for the purpose.'

'Syrup of Garlic is an invaluable medicine for asthma, hoarseness, coughs, difficulty of breathing, and most other disorders of the lungs, being of particular virtue in chronic bronchitis, on account of its powers of promoting expectoration. It is made by pouring a quart of water, boiled hot, upon a pound of the fresh root, cut into slices, and allowed to stand in a closed vessel for twelve hours, sugar then being added to make it of the consistency of syrup. Vinegar and honey greatly improve this syrup as a medicine. A little caraway and sweet fennel seed bruised and boiled for a short time in the vinegar before it is added to the Garlic, will cover the pungent smell of the latter.'

'A remedy for asthma, that was formerly most popular, is a syrup of Garlic, made by boiling the bulbs till soft and adding an equal quantity of vinegar to the water in which they have been boiled, and then sugared and boiled down to a syrup. The syrup is then poured over the boiled bulbs, which have been allowed to dry meanwhile, and kept in a jar. Each morning a bulb or two is to be taken, with a spoonful of the syrup.'

'Syrup made by melting 1½ oz. of lump sugar in 1 oz. of the raw expressed juice may be given to children in cases of coughs without inflammation.'

'The successful treatment of tubercular consumption by Garlic has been recorded, the freshly expressed juice, diluted with equal quantities of water, or dilute spirit of wine, being inhaled antiseptically.'

'Bruised and mixed with lard, it has been proved to relieve whooping-cough if rubbed on the chest and between the shoulder-blades.'

'Preparations: Juice, 10 to 30 drops. Syrup, 1 drachm. Tincture, ½ to 1 drachm.'

'Wine of Garlic - made by macerating three or four bulbs in a quart of proof spirit is a good stimulant lotion for baldness of the head.'

'Used in cookery it is a great aid to digestion, and keeps the coats of the stomach healthy. For this reason, essential oil is made from it and is used in the form of pills.'

King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Garlic is stimulant, diuretic, expectorant, and rubefacient; it is used both for medical and culinary purposes. The medicinal effects above stated are owing to the absorption of its volatile oil, the stimulating action of which causes thirst, promotes the activity of the various excretory organs, as the skin, kidneys, and mucous membrane of the air-tubes, communicating its odor to their excretions.'

'It has been beneficially used in coughs, catarrhal affections, pertussis, hoarseness, worms, and calculous diseases, during the absence of in animation.'

'Externally, it has been employed as a resolvent in indolent tumors, and as a counter-irritant in cerebral and pulmonary affections. When applied along the spinal column and over the chest of infants, in the form of poultice, it is very useful in pneumonia; and placed over the region of the bladder, it has sometimes proved effectual in producing a discharge of urine when retention has arisen from torpor of the bladder.'

'Garlic juice, oil of sweet almonds, and glycerin, of each equal parts, mixed, and dropped in the ear, has cured several cases of deafness, due probably to excessive cerumen, or to chronic debility of the mucous tissues of the organ of hearing.'

'The dose of fresh garlic is 1 or 2 drachms; of the juice, a small teaspoonful. Large doses cause nausea, vomiting, purging and other unpleasant symptoms. The juice is often made into a syrup with sugar, by nurses, for coughs, catarrh, and pulmonary affections of infants. The odor imparted to the breath by garlic and onions, may be very much diminished by chewing roasted coffee grains, or parsley leaves and seeds.'

Eclectic Materia medica, 1922 (Felter): 'External. Stimulant and rubefacient. Garlic poultice, like that of the onion, may be applied with benefit in acute respiratory and abdominal inflammations. It sometimes excites a flow of urine in atony of the bladder, and in gastro-intestinal catarrh it is as efficient as the spice poultice. Applied to the feet it has been successful as a revulsant in brain and cerebro-spinal disorders of children, associated with convulsions.'

'Internal. Expectorant and diuretic. The juice or the syrup (made by covering bruised garlic with sugar) is often effectual in common colds, especially when tending to become chronic or frequently repeated. It should not be used when there is marked irritation or inflammation. As a food, garlic is a stimulant to digestion if not used to excess. As such it is a common ingredient of certain meat sausages.'

http://www.herbmed.org/Herbs/Herb140.htm:

Clinical Trials

Cholesterol decreased after 8 weeks in volunteer groups with guggulipid from 212 to 143, with allicin from 148 to 130, and with bengal gram seeds from 157 to 135 Ghorai 2000

Immune-stimulation by low molecular weight sulfur compounds in Garlic (macrophages, natural killer & killer cells, LAK cells, increases of IL-2, TNF & IFN-gamma) make it worthy clinical trials for cancer prevention Lamm 2000

Arteriosclerotic plaque volume in carotid & femoral arteries decreased 5-18% with continuous intake of high-dose garlic powder in a study of 152 people Koscielny 1999

9-18% reduction & 3% regression in plaque volume, decrease in LDL 4%, increase in HDL 8%, lowered blood pressure 7% and opening of K(Ca) ion channels were found in a prospective, 4-year clinical trial of garlic Siegel 1999

Total cholesterol, triglycerides & platelet thromboxane formation decreased and HDL increased in 30 coronary artery disease patients taking garlic for 3 months compared with a placebo group. There was no effect on fibrinogen & glucose levels Bordia 1998

Platelet aggregation induced by epinephrine or collagen were decreased by aged garlic extract vs. placebo in a 10-month study with moderately hypercholesterolemic men. Platelet adhesion to fibrinogen was reduced 30% Steiner 1998

Decreases in cholesterol (11%), triglyceride (34%), LDL (10%) & HDL (19%) in 40 hyperlipid patients who added fish oil (1800 mg EPA + 1200 mg docosahexanoic acid) with garlic powder (1200 mg) capsules Morcos 1997

Decreases in cholesterol 7%, LDL 4% & systolic blood pressure 5.5% by 7.2 g aged garlic extract/d for 6 mo in a double-blind crossover study of 41 moderately hypercholesterolemic men, 5.7-7.5 mmol/L (220-290 mg/dL) Steiner 1996