{"id":1273,"date":"2018-09-10T10:15:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T08:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ambogdan.com\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2020-11-03T19:56:58","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T17:56:58","slug":"healing-garlic-ancient-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ambogdan.com\/healing-garlic-ancient-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Almighty Healing Garlic of the Ancients"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

“The almighty\u00a0healing garlic”<\/em>\u00a0may sound pretentious, yet I assure you the Ancients would agree 100% with such a statement and for many good reasons as\u00a0you shall see.\u00a0One of the oldest cultivated plants on Earth, garlic has been regarded for thousands of years and much appreciated for its medicinal properties as noticed through empirical use. The objective of this review is to examine briefly the medical uses of garlic throughout the ages and cultures, as well as the role that it was considered to play in the prevention and treatment of diseases. First will have a look at the ancient medical and literary texts that talked about the healing properties of the garlic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The garlic’s journey<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Garlic has been in use for such a long time that one cannot pinpoint with certainty its place of origin. Various sources consider that garlic originated in western China from around the Tien Shan Mountains to Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan; from there it spread first to the Old World and then to the New World. According to different sources quoted by The Cambridge World History of Food<\/em>, the cultivation of garlic in Western Europe is usually thought to have been stimulated by the Crusaders\u2019 contacts with East in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. However, much earlier, Charlemagne (724-814) listed garlic in his Capitulare de Villis and mentioned it as of Italian origin.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Spaniards are responsible for introducing the garlic to the Americas. In Mexico, Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) apparently grew it, and by 1604, it was said in Peru that \u201cthe Indians esteem garlic above all the roots of Europe\u201d.<\/em> By 1775, the Choctaw Indians of North America were cultivating garlic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By the nineteenth century, American writers mentioned garlic as among their garden esculents. It is also known that garlic grew wild in southwest Siberia and spread through southern Europe down to Sicily.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The<\/strong> Alliaceae family<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Along with onions, leeks and shallots, garlic is a species in the plant family named Alliaceae. Garlic is low in calories and very rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Manganese. It also contains trace amounts of various other nutrients such as Selenium, Fiber and decent amounts of calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B1. Garlic also contains antioxidants that protect against cell damage and ageing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are more than 100 varieties of garlic grown worldwide, but they are generally split into two major types. There are two major types of garlic (Allium sativum), hard-necks (Ophioscorodon) and soft-necks (Sativum), each one has its own varieties and sub-varieties.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Soft-neck garlic is most commonly seen garlic in grocery store. Its names derives from the multiple layers of creamy white or bright papery parchment covering the bulb and continuing up the neck. Hard-necked varieties are often much easier to peel than their soft-necked cousins. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n