The healing powers of garlic By Anette Martinsen

Garlic also known as Allium Sativum (Liliaceae) is renowned for its pungent odour and taste. It is a bulbous perennial, which can grow between 30cm-1m, and it has pale pink or green-white flowers. This humble bulb is something of a mini miracle worker with its valuable medicinal properties. It is completely safe for home use and a powerful treatment for many health problems. According to the Garlic Research Bureau it contains over 100 active compounds, its key constituents include volatile oil (alliin, alliinase and allion), selenium, scordinins and vitamins A, B, C and E.

History
Garlic has been around for a very long time and as civilizations grew from 3000 BC onwards in Egypt, the Middle East, China and Indian so did the use of medicinal plants and herbs, which we can see from written accounts. The earliest surviving examples are the Egyptian Ebers papyrus of 1500 BC, which lists dozens of medicinal plants, their uses and related spells and incantations, garlic being one of them. After the arrival of Columbus’ ships in the Caribbean in 1492 herbs were becoming more readily available, but the only foreign plants that were used medicinally were those that could easily be grown locally as food, of which garlic offers one of the earliest and clearest examples. The herb was introduced into Britain after the Roman conquest in the 1st century AD, by which time its remarkable medicinal powers were becoming understood. Garlic is now grown worldwide, by dividing the bulb and harvesting it in the late summer. Garlic is of course widely cultivated commercially for use in cooking too.

Cooking tip

Eating raw garlic is the best way to get the goodness, as cooking can destroy the active compounds. If you are cooking with it, crush the garlic and stir it in five minutes before the end of the cooking.

It also has various anti-oxidant properties and is thought to help maintain a healthy heart, lower cholesterol levels, improve circulation and reduce blood clotting. It was used as a treatment for all kinds of infections from tuberculosis to typhoid before the development of antibiotics. In the First World War it was even used to dress wounds. It is an effective expectorant, it increases sweating and it also lowers blood pressure. Due to its antibiotic properties it can heal all sorts of infections and can ward off colds and flu. It can also heal acne, boils, cold sores, coughs, bronchitis and athlete’s foot. I have successfully used it to expel worms and parasites from my children on several occasions. Garlic is an anti-diabetic and it is also a great detoxifier.

Research

Garlic has been extensively researched in the U.S, Japan and Germany from the 1980’s onwards, but experts still disagree on how it gets its antibiotic action. In clinical trails in the 1980's garlic confirmed that it reduces blood lipid (fat) levels, and lowers blood pressure.

My mother gave me the following prescription when she came to stay recently which was originally found in a Buddhist monastery in the Tibetan mountains in 1972 and where it was written in antique written signs.

What you will need:
350g garlic
¼ litre of 60% alcohol
Glass jar with a lid
Gauze or equivalent

Method

Peel and crush 350g of garlic through a garlic press and mix it with the alcohol. Pour the mixture into a tightly sealed glass jar, and place it into the fridge for 10 days. After the 10th day you can take out the jar and filter it through the gauze squeezing it very hard, keeping the liquid and discarding the pulp. Then place the jar with the liquid back in the fridge for another 2 days. After the 2nd day the liquid is the ready for use. Don't worry if the mixture turns green after a couple of days, this is quite normal. You should follow the table below: -

Take 25 drops 3 times a day until the mixture runs out.

Take the drops with a little juice, milk or water before your meal, once you have completed this course you cannot take this again for another 5 years. This mixture with extract of garlic will clean your organisms reducing fat; it will improve your metabolism and should therefore reduce your weight. It can heal all types of infections and health problems such as bronchitis, headaches, rheumatism, eczema, gastritis, and eyesight disorders. Your whole body will renew it self.