About

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to Central Asia, northeastern Iran and the foothills of Himalayas. It has naturalized in many other parts of the world, including Mediterranean Europe and China. There are two subspecies and hundreds of varieties of garlic.

Garlic has been used for thousands of years as a seasoning, culinary ingredient, and traditional medical remedy. It was known in many ancient civilizations, including the Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, Romans, and Chinese, and remains significant in many cuisines and folk treatments, especially across the Mediterranean and Asia. Sulfur compounds give garlic its pungent odor and flavor. There is clinical evidence to indicate that consuming garlic has health benefits.

How to grow it

Garlic is easy to cultivate and may grow year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually by planting individual cloves in the ground.

In colder climates, cloves are best planted about six weeks before the soil freezes. The goal is to have the bulbs produce only roots and no shoots above the ground.

Safety

The scent of garlic is known to linger upon the human body and cause bad breath (halitosis) and body odor. This is caused by allyl methyl sulfide (AMS). AMS is a volatile liquid which is absorbed into the blood during the metabolism of garlic-derived sulfur compounds; from the blood it travels to the lungs (and from there to the mouth, causing garlic breath) and skin, where it is exuded through skin pores. Since digestion takes several hours, and release of AMS several hours more, the effect of eating garlic may be present for a long time. Washing the skin with soap is only a partial and imperfect solution to the smell. Studies have shown sipping milk at the same time as consuming garlic can significantly neutralize bad breath. Mixing garlic with milk in the mouth before swallowing reduced the odor better than drinking milk afterward. Plain water, mushrooms, and basil may also reduce the odor; the mix of fat and water found in milk, however, was the most effective.

Abundant sulfur compounds in garlic are also responsible for turning garlic green or blue during pickling and cooking.

Where it grows

Garlic plants are usually hardy and not affected by many pests or diseases, however, a pest that damages its seeds are Delia platura, commonly known as seed corn maggots. Garlic plants are said to repel rabbits and moles. The California Department of Food and Agriculture conducts a certification program to assure freedom from nematode and white rot disease caused by Stromatinia cepivora, two pathogens that can both destroy a crop and remain in the soil indefinitely once introduced. Garlic may also suffer from pink root, a typically non-fatal disease that stunts the roots and turns them pink or red; or leek rust, which usually appears as bright orange spots. The larvae of the leek moth attack garlic by mining into the leaves or bulbs.

Uses

Because of sulfur compounds circulating in blood, consumed garlic may act as a mosquito repellent, although there is no scientific evidence of its efficacy.

Other Allium plants

South Idaho onion · Abrams' allium · Allium aciphyllum · Tapertip onion · Allium aeginiense · Allium aflatunense · Allium agrigentinum · Allium alabasicum · Allium albotunicatum · Allium alibile · Altai Onion · Allium altissimum