Allium sativum: Antibiotic and Immune Properties

Resistant bacteria

A major problem with pharmaceutical antibiotics is that they can promote the development of resistant strains of bacteria. Initially the antibiotic kills most of the bacteria being attacked. With repeated exposure, however, those few bacteria that by chance are genetically resistant to the antibiotic begin to multiply. Eventually a recurring infection becomes completely resistant to that antibiotic. After a half century of the massive use of antibiotics, and the indiscriminate over-prescription of them in North America, potentially serious medical problems exist from resistant strains of bacteria. Garlic does not seem to produce such resistant strains, and may be effective against strains that have become resistant to pharmaceutical antibiotics. European researchers in the late 1970s tested garlic juice against a group of ten different bacteria and yeasts (Moore and Atkins 1977). They found that garlic was effective against all of them, and also found a “complete absence of development of resistance.” In an Indian study of garlic for dysentery, the researchers specifically selected four bacterial strains that were resistant to multiple antibiotics (Chowdhury et al 1991).

Garlic is effective against specific bacteria that are notorious for developing resistant strains, such as staphylococcus, mycobacterium, salmonella, and species of Proteus.

Antiviral activity

A weakness of conventional antibiotics is that they are not effective against viral infections. That’s why they won’t work against the common cold or flu. They also won’t work against some serious viral infections like viral meningitis, viral pneumonia, or herpes infections. Garlic or its constituents will directly kill influenza, herpes, vaccinia (cowpox), vesicular stomatitis virus (responsible for cold sores), and human cytomegalovirus (a common source of secondary infection in AIDS.) Garlic will also cure or improve the symptoms of a variety of viral diseases in humans or animals. In one animal study, researchers first fed a garlic extract to mice. They then introduced the flu virus into the nasal passages of the animals. Those animals that had received the garlic were protected from the flu, while the untreated animals all got sick. The researchers postulated that garlic’s effect was due in part to direct antiviral effects of garlic, and in part to stimulation of the immune system (Adetumbi and Lau, 1983)

Parasites and fungi

The medical missionary Albert Schweitzer brought some fame to garlic earlier this century when he used it successfully to treat amoebic dysentery in his patients in equatorial Africa. Subsequent experiments have shown garlic to be effective not only against the parasitic amoebas that cause dysentery, but against other organisms such as toxoplasma, cryptosporidia, and pneumocystis, all of which cause disease in humans.

Parasitic infections are a common problem in AIDS patients. Dr. Subhuti Dharmananda, Director of the Immune Enhancement Project in Portland, Oregon, regularly treats AIDS patients with such opportunistic infections. The main antibiotic therapy he uses in garlic, at about nine cloves a day for active infections, and he finds it effective to prevent or treat these infections, even when conventional antibiotics have failed to do so. Note that he started out trying to use an encapsulated form of garlic standardized for its allicin content — one of the better products. He found, however, that even doses of twenty-seven capsules a day had no effect on the infections. When he switched to raw garlic at the same dose, he got the desired result (Dharmananda 1995). Recent research supports use for intestinal parasites in AIDS (AIDS Research Alliance 1996; Deshpande et al 1993).

Yeast infections

If you’ve ever had athlete’s foot, you know how stubborn a yeast or fungal infection can be. A garlic wash can be very effective against fungi externally, but garlic can also treat systemic fungal infections. Researchers from the University of New Mexico demonstrated that garlic was effective both in the test tube and in animals against infection with the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. Chinese researchers also have shown that garlic as a intravenous extract can be effective against cryptococcal meningitis. The blood and cerebrospinal fluid of the patients in that trial was twice as effective against the fungus as before treatment with garlic.

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