Recent research at New Mexico State University has shown that cooked garlic can still display powerful antibiotic properties albeit far less stronger than raw garlic.
Raw garlic’s bacteria killing properties have been known about for years. It has the ability to kill off many food borne bacteria such as e-coli, salmonella, and listeria. Until now, most experts on garlic believed that these antibacterial properties disappeared once garlic was cooked and the principle biochemical, allicin, was transformed into something much less potent. Now, however, there is evidence that some of the antibacterial components in garlic are resistant to heat and remain active as bacteria fighters even when garlic is cooked.
Chitra Wendakoon, a microbiologist at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, conducted several experiments in which the bacteria killing properties of both raw and cooked garlic were compared. In the first experiment, extract of raw garlic and garlic that had been boiled for 15 minutes were added to petri dishes containing several common strains of food borne bacteria including salmonella, listeria and shigella. The next day, both extracts displayed the ability to create bacteria free dead zones in the areas where they were placed. In the next experiment, Wendakoon added both extracts to a nutrient rich broth which resulted in both killing off millions of bacteria.
The catch being…
While cooked garlic did display the ability to wipe out bacteria and create bacteria dead zones in both of these experiments, it should be noted that raw garlic displayed much greater bacteria killing prowess. In the petri dish experiment, the raw garlic extract created a dead zone twice that of the cooked stuff, and in the broth experiment, the raw extract wiped out ten times as many bacteria as the cooked. So while cooked garlic still kept some of the antibacterial power that its former self had, garlic in its raw state is still the reigning champ.
Still, this ability of cooked garlic to wipe out bacteria bodes well for most of the garlic eating world which prefers to have their garlic cooked instead of raw and smelly. While not as potent, at least some of the bacteria fighting benefits remain when garlic is cooked. Also, since cooked garlic is still good for the heart, this makes this news a win, win for the many garlic loving epicureans that exist out there.
Dr. Wendakoon is also excited about the possibility of isolating these heat hardy antibacterial components in garlic in order to use them in other medicinal applications.
About the Author:Yulia Berry is an independent health researcher and author of the best selling e-books Aloe - Your Miracle Doctor and "Pharmacy in Vegetables". She distributes a weekly newsletter regarding great home remedies and has written dozens of natural health articles published on hundreds of websites worldwide. Yulia Berry's new ebook Unlocked Secrets of Curative Garlic to be released soon.
