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THE CHEF ENCYCLOPEDIA:
Culinary Herb & Spice Reference Guide
Garlic
(Allium sativum)
Family: Liliaceae
Native to central Asia, Garlic is a plant with a long history of use
not only as a food, but also as a folk medicine. Garlic is the dried
root of Allium sativum, a member of the lily family. Garlic grows in
a bulb that consists of a number of cloves, each protected by a layer
of skin but held together in one larger unit by additional layers of
skin. With its distinctive odor and flavor, Garlic is used in cuisines
throughout the world, and is indispensable in Chinese, Italian, and
Mexican foods. Medicinal uses of garlic are numerous and include claims
that eating garlic reduces heart problems. Medically, the most important
compound in garlic is allicin, representing about 0.24% of the weight.
Allicin is changed via several pathways into ajoene and thioacrolein
with strong antithrombotic factor, increasing the length of time it
takes for blood to clot, and important in preventing heart disease.
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