Health
The substance that gives garlic its characteristic smell and taste is a miracle cure that can prevent a variety of diseases, ranging from colon cancer to a decrease cholesterol. Now you can add one more thing to the list of its useful properties. It has recently been found to be 100 times more effective than two commonly used antibiotics against campylobacter, which causes a wide range of foodborne diseases.
Campylobacter is one of the most common causes of bacterial food poisoning. Symptoms of campylobacter poisoning include diarrhea, cramps, abdominal pain, and high fever. This bacterium can also trigger one third of a rare paralyzing disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Most infections occur from eating raw or undercooked poultry or products that have been contaminated through appliances or the surface on which the poultry was cooked.
Dr. Xiaonan Lu from the University of Washington in the United States tested the ability of diallyl sulfate, a compound found in garlic, to kill bacteria that are protected by the mucosa biofilm, which makes them 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics than free-floating bacteria. They found that the compound easily penetrated through the protective film, killing bacterial cells and stopping cellular metabolism.
Thus, the substance contained in garlic was 100 times more effective than antibiotics such as erythromycin and ciprofloxacin, and often worked much faster.
Previous studies have found that diallyl sulfate and other organosulphur compounds also effectively kill foodborne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7.
Experts, however, warn that the work is still at an early stage and, although consuming garlic will benefit your health, you should not rush to eat garlic in handfuls to heal food poisoning. However, garlic will help make food safer. It can be used to clean the surface on which food is prepared and as a preservative for products that will not only increase the shelf life of the product, but also reduce the growth of potentially harmful bacteria.