Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum) a species in the onion genus Allium is closely related to the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. It has been used for medicinal purposes since the beginning of recorded history. It was reported that many ancient cultures and civilizations used garlic for medical applications to provide strength and increase work capacity for laborers, and thus it is labeled as one of the earliest “performance-enhancing” agents. With the developments both in chemistry and modern medicine, now garlic either in its raw or a powder form, as well as oil or water extracts, plays an important role for many prescribed medicines due to the compounds within garlic, such as allicin, alliin, diallyl thiosulfinate, diallyl mono-, di- and trisulfides, being active compounds. Garlic finds its vital place for different application by virtue of its antimicrobial activity, high antioxidant capacity, higher phenolic content, and organosulfur compounds. Depending on cultivars, growth and storage conditions are changed, as are the processes such as cutting, drying, and extraction applied to raw garlic to obtain its constituents. Thus common use, composition, properties, and health-promoting effects of garlic are reviewed to evaluate its importance and to draw attention to its future trends for the extension of its use, as well as to highlight the production of new end products derived from current garlic products. © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.