Medicinal Uses of Garlic
Garlic, a common household edible plant used in soups and salads, has a good capacity for preventing cardiomyopathy (Disease of the heart muscle which is usually chronic and is one of the leading cause of death in the patients of diabetes.) In the patients it is also known as diabetic cardiomyopathy.
Moreover, it has also been found that Garlic can reduce the blood sugar level in diabetes.
Garlic oil has also found anti-oxidant properties i.e. a substance that reduces the degradative effects of oxidation. Garlic oil has also found anthelmintic and rubefacient properties. (Anthelmintic agents have the properties of destroying parasitic worms and/or flushing out of intestinal parasitic worms and rubefacient refers to the agent which makes the skin red and used as counterirritant.) Garlic oil is also used as expectorant, diuretic and diaphoretic. (Expectorant refers to the agent that stimulates the production and getting rid of plegm i.e. thick mucus in the respiratory passages, diuretic is an agent that increases urinary output and diaphoretic refers to the substance that induces sweating).
It has also been found that fresh garlic has good anti-bacterial properties. Allicin is one of the main components of garlic which has useful effects in the prevention of cancer, blood clotting and bacterial infections.
Garlic is also used in wound coverings. Garlic has also found uses in protection against hip osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in adults affecting more than 8.5 million people in UK.
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