"Natural Healing with Herbs for a Healthier You"
Garlic has been known for centuries to function as a natural antibiotic. It destroys the unnecessary and harmful bacteria throughout the human system. It emulsifies cholesterol and loosens it from arterial walls. It is effective in arresting intestinal putrefaction; it is used against contagious diseases, high blood pressure, fevers, parasites, worms, nicotine poisoning, colic, and yeast infections. (Concern, April 1977, p. 7)
The brilliant Dr. Edward Shook, herbalist, pharmacist and one of our illustrious teachers, began his lectures on garlic with the phrase of the Gentle Shepherd, "Consider the Lilies. . . " Garlic is a member of the Liliaceae family which also includes the onion. This is Dr. Shook's botanical description of garlic:
Allium Sativum. Natural order. Liliaceae.
Common Names Garlic, poor man's treacle.
Part used. Bulb.
Description. The leaves are long, narrow, and much like grass.
The bulb (the only part used) is compound, consisting of numerous bulblets, commonly called "cloves," grouped together between the membrane scales, and enclosed within a whitish skin which holds them as in a sac. The whitish flowers are located at the end of stalks growing directly out of the bulb. They are grouped together in globular umbels with spathes surrounding them.
It will pay us handsomely to consider this lily because it is one of nature's great masterpieces as a safe and certain remedy for many of man's serious and devastating diseases.
This wonderful herb has been used from very ancient times both as food and medicine.
Theophrastus, the Greek philosopher (born 372 BC) relates that garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on piles of stone at the crossroads as a feast for Hecate (literally a feast for the gods.)
Virgil, the Roman poet (70 BC) in his eclogues states that garlic was part of the entertainment served by Nestor to his guest Machaon. He also tells us that it was owing to the virtues of garlic that Ulysses owed his escape from being changed by Circe into a pig like each of his companions.
Galen speaks very highly of it, eulogizing it as the "theriac" or "heal all."
Chaucer calls it "theriac" as do several old English botanists and herbalists.
Pliny gives an exceedingly long list of complaints in which it was considered beneficial.
The name garlic is of very ancient Anglo-Saxon origin being derived from gar (a spear) and lac (a plant) in reference to the shape of its leaves. It is one of the oldest medicinal remedies known to man, which has been cultivated and used from time immemorial in the treatment of many diseases. Both its romantic history and its very remarkable curative virtues are vastly interesting and educational to all earnest and honest physicians, and it is notable that it stands out today as one of our greatest and most important therapeutic agents.
It is alterative, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, antispasmodic, antiasthmatic, stimulant, antiseptic, disinfectant, tonic, nervine, antiphthisic, germicide, and vermicide. Chemical Constituents: Volatile oil (25 percent), mucilage (35 percent), albumen, sugar, starch, fibrin, and 50 percent water. The oil is a rather complex substance, of a strong, intensely penetrating odor and consists of allyl compounds of sulfur. It will be seen that this remarkable herb is heavily laden with organic sulfur, but no oxygen is found in the oil. Yet, it is the action of oxygen when the skin is taken off the cloves that releases the sulfur by combining with an allyl group to form allyloxide, which is also a pungent liquid having a sulfur odor.
Many marvelous effects and healing powers have been claimed for garlic. It is probable that none of them were exaggerated. I, myself, have seen it cure tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis, several skin diseases, stomach ulcers, leg ulcers, athletes foot, furunculosis, abscesses, epilepsy, and special affinity for the respiratory tract, lungs, bronchi, and so forth, though it diffuses itself through the whole system and wherever there is pus, it is a certain and safe remedy. The use of garlic in the World War as an antiseptic was most sensational. In 1916, the British government asked for tons of the bulbs offering one shilling a pound for as much as could be produced. A great quantity of it was used for the control of suppuration in wounds. The raw juice was expressed, diluted with water, and put on swabs of sterilized sphagnum moss which was applied to the wounds. Where this treatment was given, it has been proved that there has never been one single case of sepsis of septic results. Consequently, the lives of tens of thousands have been saved by this one miraculous herb. That was nearly many years ago, and still we do not find garlic as an official remedy in the United States Pharmacopeia. This is one of the most disgraceful facts connected with the so-called regular practice of medicine, and proves beyond all doubt that their practice is neither ethical, moral, or even humane; otherwise, such a miracle of healing power would never have been discarded as it was.
In olden days, garlic was employed as a specific for leprosy, psoriasis and several forms of exanthematous skin diseases. It was also believed to have most beneficial results in smallpox applied to the soles of the feet in a linen cloth renewed daily.
Those unacquainted with garlic might think this was merely superstition; but, as a matter of fact, it is quite true. If chopped or minced fresh garlic is placed on the soles of the feet and allowed to remain there for some time, it will not be long before the odor of garlic can be detected on the breath; and cases of purulent disease in different parts of the body have been reported completely cured by simply keeping an application of garlic to the soles of the feet, and renewing it once or twice a day.
We positively know that organic sulfur is a universal antiseptic, whether taken internally or applied outwardly to any part of the body. It has been authoritatively reported that tuberculosis has been successfully treated by inhalation of the freshly expressed juice of garlic, diluted with equal quantities of water.
Garlic was the principal ingredient in the famous Four Thieves Vinegar which was adapted so successfully at Marseilles for protection against the plague when it prevailed there in 1772. This originated, it is said, with four thieves who confessed that, while protected by the liberal use of aromatic garlic vinegar during the plague, they plundered the dead bodies of the victims with complete safety. It is stated that during an outbreak of infectious fever in certain poor quarters of London early in the last century, the French priests who constantly used garlic in all their dishes visited the very worst cases with impunity, while the English clergy caught the infection, and in many instances, fell victims to the disease. Another instance of the remarkable penetrating power of garlic is the fact that the expressed juice of fresh garlic mixed with olive oil and rubbed on the chest, throat, and between the shoulder blades gives great relief in whooping cough, asthma, bronchitis and dyspnea, according to an English physician who has used it with success for many years. It also has a reputation for safely reducing high blood pressure, and in this relation we have an exceedingly valuable formula.
Boiling garlic reduces its active virtues considerably. Vinegar and water both extract its curative principles, though vinegar alone seems to be more effective for that purpose. Expressed fresh juice of garlic contains all of its many virtues. The following priceless formulas will cover its therapeutic applications completely for asthma, bronchitis, catarrhal conditions of the mucous membranes, phthisis, tuberculosis, coughs, dyspnea, heart weakness, internal ulcerations, and so forth.
Garlic Syrup
Peel 1 pound of fresh garlic, then chop or mince. Put into a wide mouthed jar and add equal parts of vinegar and distilled water to just cover the garlic. Close tightly, shake well, then let stand in a cool place for four days, thoroughly shaking once or twice a day. Now, add one pint of glycerine, shake well, and let stand another day. Strain with pressure, then filter liquid through a muslin or linen cloth. Add three pounds of pure honey, and stir till thoroughly blended. Put into jars, seal tightly, and store in a cool place.
In order to cover the pungent odor of the garlic, in case it is objectionable, do the following:
In place of macerating the garlic in equal parts of vinegar and distilled water, as directed above, use 1 quart of vinegar in which 3 ounces of powdered caraway seed and 3 ounces of sweet fennel seed have been slowly boiled for 15 minutes, while closely covered. Strain and when cold, add 1 pint of glycerine. Use this in the above formula instead of the vinegar and distilled water mixture.
This is much more acceptable to those who have an antipathy to the smell and taste of garlic. Of course, the 3 pounds of honey are also added after the filtering process. The deviation in no way affects the curative properties of the garlic, while it helps materially to disperse gas and flatus. We use aromatic vinegar in our own preparation of this formula, which is one of the most meritorious and useful remedies to have on hand. It is harmless, and very effective in the above mentioned cases, and will please and astonish both you and the patient.
Dose: For asthma and coughs: 1 teaspoonful with or without water every 15 minutes until spasm is controlled; then 1 teaspoonful every 2 or 3 hours for the rest of the day. After that, 1 teaspoonful 3 or 4 times a day is usually sufficient.
For tuberculosis, cardiac asthma and dyspnea: 1 dessertspoonful to a tablespoonful 3 or 4 times a day between meals.
Children: (8 to 15 years) one half of the above dose; (5 to 8 years) one quarter dose; (1 to 4 years) one eighth in a little water or honey
Garlic has also been used successfully in dropsy. The above formula may be used with benefit, but the following will be found to be much more prompt and effective, especially where the heart is much involved.
Dropsy with Heart Involvement.
Boil 8 ounces lily of the valley root (cut) (Convallaria majalis) in 3 pints of distilled water for 20 minutes. Strain then boil slowly till reduced to 1 pint. Set aside to cool, and while still warm, add 8 ounces of expressed garlic juice, 8 ounces of brown cane sugar, and 1 pint of glycerine. When cold, bottle and keep in a coot place.
This is one of the most potent remedies for dropsy and heart disease ever devised.
Dose: 1 teaspoonful to a dessertspoonful in water, as required. The dose should be regulated and given every 3 hours to bring about diuresis. Also, a slowing of the heart action, and an increase in the tone of its contraction. After this effect has been produced, administer 1 teaspoonful in water 3 or 4 times a day.
Garlic for outward application: For eczema, pityriasis, psoriasis, ulcers, cancers, swollen glands, tubercular joints, necrosis and all purulent conditions that are accessible, we recommend the following formula:
These garlic formulas we have given you are priceless. It will pay you to study them, and utilize them with confidence whenever occasion arises."
--(Shook, 1978; reprint. pp. 69-73)
Dioscorides, a second century physician and herbalist who traveled with the army of Alexander the Great, has the following to say on the subject of garlic. Dioscorides was translated into middle English by a scholar of the middle ages:
SKORODON Allium Sativum
LEUKOSKORODON Allium Ampeloprasum
OPHIOSKORODON Allium Scorodoprasum
ELAPHOSKORODON Allium subhirsutum
Garlic
Garluk (some call it Geboscome againe Elaphoboscum, the Latins Allium) some of it is Satiue & growes in gardens & this in Egypt, being only but of one head as the teeke, sweet, inclining to a purple colour. But elsewhere, it is compacted of many white cloues, the cloues that therein (the Greeks) call Aglithai. But there is another wilde kinde, called Ophioscorodon. (that is Serpent's Garlick). It hath a sharp, warning biting quanitie, expelling of flatulencies, and disturbing of the belly, and drying of the stomach causing of thirst & puffing vp, breeding of boyies in ye outsyde of the body, dulling the sight of the eyes. And the same thinges don also, (as we should say, Hart's garlick). Being eaten, it driues out the broade wormes, and drawes away the vrine. It is good, as none other thing, for such as are bitten of vipers, or of the Haemorrhous, who being taken presently after, or else that being beaten small in wine & soe dranek. It is applyed also by ye way of Cataplasme both for the same purposes profitably, as also layd on upon such as are bitten of mad dogge. Being eaten, it is good against the chaunge of waters (fauces expediende, easdeings asperas leniendo.) It doth cleare the arteries & being eaten either raw or sod, it doth assuage old coughes. Being dranck with decoction of Origanum, it cloth kill lice and nitts. But being burnt, and tempered with bony it cloth cure the sugillationes oculorum, and Alopeciae being anointed on, but for the Alopeciae (it must be applyed) with vnguentum Nardinum. And with salt & oyle it cloth heale ye eruptiones papularum. It doth take away also the Vitiligines, & the Lichenes, & the Lentigenes, and the running ulcers of the head, and the Furfures & ye Lepras, with hony. Being sod with Taeda and Franckincense, & kept in the mouth it doth assuage the paine of ye teeth. And with figge leaues & Cummin it is a Cataplasme for such as are bitten of the Mygale. But the leafes decoction is an insession that brings downe the Menstrua & the Secondas. It is also taken by way of suffumigation for ye same purpose. But the stamping that is made of it and ye black olive together, called Myrton, cloth moue the vrine & open ye mouths of ye veins & it is good also for the Hydropicall."
(Dioscorides, Book 11, pp. 188-91, under the heading of "Sharp Herbs.")
Let's go into some interesting historical facts on garlic, a most revered patriarchal herb:
"Garlic, a cousin of the lily originated in Central Asia or India, where the early peoples enjoyed eating raw garlic as an enhancement to their meals. They also enjoyed longevity, and the lowest incidence of cancer on the planet." (Messegue, 1979, p. 132)
The builders of the pyramids of Egypt were paid in the coin of the realm; onions and garlic, a valuable commodity.
These builders of the pyramids of Cheops, a Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh, consumed great quantities of garlic. It was during these times that garlic was elevated to the rank of a deity.
The Ebers Papyrus, 1500 BC, one of the earliest herbal pharmacological documents we know, mentions garlic used in external applications for wounds.
Here is a quotation from the Bible:
"We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt for Nought, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." (Numbers 11:5)
According to Helen Noyes Webster, who interpreted the above quotation in her book, Herbs, How to Grow Them and How to Use Them, the Israelites traveling with Moses obviously missed the garlic when they went toward the Promised Land. If Moses had carried garlic, the Israelites may have been able to avoid intestinal putrefaction from eating the desert's available lizards and snakes.
Homer mentions garlic in his famous Odyssey. The deity Mercury, or Hermes, gave garlic to Odysseus as a protection against the goddess Circe's evil sorcery in which she turned men to swine. The athletes of the original Olympic games in ancient Greece traditionally chewed a clove of garlic before participating in the games. Galen, an early Greek doctor, spoke of garlic as the panacea of the common man. Hippocrates prescribed the eating of garlic for uterine tumors. The Vikings and the Phoenicians always carried garlic on their ocean voyages.
The crusaders brought garlic back to France. (In those days, it was a common law that two men's lives could be sacrificed in order to save a 100 lb. sack of peppercorns.)
A French herbalist, Messegue, born in Gascony, France, states that all the children born in that province are baptized with a clove of garlic on the lips. The emperor Charlemagne recommended that his subjects cultivate garlic. King Henry IV of France was baptized with a clove of garlic on his lips, and although he was said to have chewed a clove of raw garlic every morning upon arising, he was still very popular with the ladies.
The National Cancer Institute central files show that the incidence of cancer is extremely low in France where garlic consumption is the greatest and that garlic eaters in Bulgaria do not have cancer. It is reported in a textbook on pharmacognosy that a physician in British Columbia has successfully treated malignant situations by prescribing the eating of garlic.
The prophet Mohammed recommend that garlic be applied externally on the sting of the scorpion or the bite of the viper in the 7th century.
"The herb becomes the teacher. Men stray after false goals while the herb he treads (or in these days, stomps upon) knows much much more."
The above quote was written by Henry Vaughn, the early 17th century poet and mystic, as well as Hermetic philosopher during the days when the Doctrine of Signatures was popular. The Doctrine of Signatures was the method by which the ancients recognized the usage of a plant. According to Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century English Physician and Herbalist, "and by the icon or image of every herb, man first found out their virtues. Modern writers laugh at them for it, but I wonder in my heart how the virtues of herbs first came to be known, if not by their signatures. The moderns have then from the writings of the ancients--the ancients had no writings to have them from."
The 17th century "moderns" felt that garlic, with its hollow stalk, helps afflictions of the windpipe. We know this to be a truth; that garlic is an antihistamine, and has been successfully used in bronchial and pulmonary disorders. As we examine some of the virtues of garlic, we find that the claims of the old Doctrine of Signatures will be far surpassed.
The National Dispensatory of 1887 gives us a fine description of the constituents of garlic at a period in our medical history when Syrupus Alli was an official U.S. preparation.
Constituents.--Besides the cellular tissue, garlic contains between 50 and 60 percent of water, 35 percent of mucilage some albumen, sugar, starch, and about 1 percent of volatile oil, to which its odor and taste are due. In its crude state, oil of garlic is of a dark brown-yellow color, heavier than water, of a very interesting taste, and consists of oxide and sulphides of allyl. The rectified oil consists mainly of the sulphide, (C3H5) 2S, is colorless, lighter than water and may be obtained artificially by treating an alcoholic solution of potassium sulphide with allyl iodide. It dissolves easily in alcohol and ether, and sparingly in water ... Garlic, macerated in water or vinegar, yields its virtues to these liquids.--(p. 154)
They also describe its physiological action and medicinal uses:
Physiological action and Medical Uses--Garlic as well as leek and onion, is a stimulant to the part to which it is directly applied and to be the whole system. Its odorous element may be perceived on the breath and its taste in the mouth when the bruised bulb has been applied to the skin. When eaten raw, its odor "hales from many parts of the body, and, given to nursing women, it taints their milk, so that their infants refuse the breast. It reddens the skin, and may even vesicate it. Internally, it stimulates the digestive organs, and is everywhere used, but principally in southern countries, as a condiment for various kinds of food. The odor or garlic is popularly employed to revive persons from a swoon or from hysterical insensibility. It is a vermifuge not to be neglected in the treatment of lumbricoid worms when given by the mouth, and for destroying ascarides when administered by the rectum. Many cases of dropsy, particularly of anasarea produced by cold, have been cured by a diet of bread and raw onions. This regimen will sometimes produce copious diuresis. Onions boiled in milk have been used successfully for a like purpose. Bruised cloves of garlic and poultices of boiled onion are admirable remedies for chronic bronchitis in children. They should be applied over the whole front of the chest. Internally, garlic is a very useful agent in the same affection. It is also a domestic remedy for whooping cough. Onion poultices are particularly applicable to abscesses; the core of a roasted onion relieves earache when introduced into the auditory canal. Onion and garlic cataplasms applied to the perineum relieve strangury. The dose of bruised or chopped garlic or of the expressed juice is about 30 grains (Gm 2). (p.154-155)
Frances Ward published this summary of garlic in her post-World War II book, British Herbs:
"GARLIC Allium Sativum, Amaryllidaceae
Anyone who travels in Italian buses might be forgiven for deciding never to grow this unpleasant smelling plant, and one can quite appreciate the decision of the old Greeks that people who ate Garlic should not be allowed in the temples of Cybele.
But from early times it has been considered a very useful medicine, and in the Middle Ages in Britain it was believed to be, either by itself by itself, as a 'simple', or mixed with other herbs, one of the cures for leprosy. Lepers were often called 'pilgarlics', as they were made to peel their own garlic, certainly a mark of identity and a means of segregation!
Throughout the ages it was held to have antiseptic properties, and during the 1914-18 War, sterilized Sphagnum Moss soaked in Garlic juice was used for suppurating wounds, a reminder of the old method of treating leprous sores. From time to time, even in modern days, Garlic has been claimed to have marvelous properties; now, in addition to its stimulating powers, it is held to be beneficial in digestive complaints and for coughs, colds and asthma.
Cultivation of Garlic is a fairly easy matter, though it needs a finely sifted soil similar to that of an onion-bed. The cloves should be set about 2 in. in the ground about February or March, and lightly covered with soil. The bulbs may usually be lifted during August. There is generally a demand for Garlic from druggists, and good prices have been paid for it." (Ward, 1949, p. 159).
It in the medical literature we find several references to garlic as a therapeutic agent.
Phytocides of garlic suppress the proteinases (cathepsin) in malignant tumors of humans (postoperative material) and of experimental animals. These phytocides also inhibit cathepsin in the liver of cancerous animals, the activity of which increases during malignant growth. This action was detected by adding garlic extract to inoculated Ehrlich carcinoma. The results may be useful in further studies on garlic in the diet of cancer patients." (p. 140)
Joseph A. Di Paolo and Christopher Carruthers of the Roswell Park Memorial Institute of Buffalo, New York, wrote an article in Cancer Research, 1960. The title is, "The effect of Allicin From Garlic on Tumor Growth." By the way, Allicin is responsible for the odor in garlic, so the new odorless garlic isn't quite as effective as regular garlic. For those fortunate souls who can ingest raw garlic; the garlic breath can be obliterated by chewing on a raw clove (not a garlic clove, but the spice clove), or putting a drop of peppermint of spearmint oil on the tongue.
Chester J. Cavallito and John Hays Bailey writing in the Journal of the Chemical Society, Volume 66, November, 1944, discuss the antibacterial principle of garlic, allicin. They isolated allicin, a colorless oil, from garlic cloves and found it to be effective against the following bacteria strains both gram positive and gram negative:
Organism
STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
STREPTOCOCCUS HEMOLYTICUS
STREPTOCOCCUS VIRIDANS
B. SUBTILIS
B. TYPHOSUS
B. PARATHYPHOSUS A
B. PARATHYPHOSUS B
B. PARATYPHOSUS KUNZENDORF
B. MORGANI
B. ENTERIDITIS
B. TYPHI-MURIUM
B. DYSENTERIAE SHIGA
B. DYSENTERIAE FLEXNER
B. DYSENTERIAE SONNE
V. CHOLERAE
(P. 1951)
H. Dold and A. Knapp, German Researchers writing in Chemotherapy section of Biological Abstracts in the 1950's discovered that garlic was effective against Streptococci, Escherichia coli, Bacillius prdigiosis, B. proteus, B. Subtilis, Shigelia paradysenteriae Flexner, Eberthelia typhosa, Salmonella enteritidis and Vibrio cholerae. It was more effective when crushed than sliced. It in addition, garlic exhibited some bacterial action even through the air. Bacteria could not be made resistant to the garlic either. The antibacterial action of garlic juice became somewhat weaker after having been stored in the ice box for 8 days and after boiling for 10 minutes. Remember, too, that when garlic is cooked above 130 degrees F., the enzymes in it are destroyed, and the organic sulphur in the garlic now becomes a harmful form of inorganic sulphur.
A most unique article appeared in the Chinese Medical Journal in May of 1977;
"GARLIC SLICE IT IN REPAIRING EARDRUM PERFORATION"
by Hsu Wei-cheng
Teaching Research Group of Ear, Nose and Throat Department, Inner Mongolia Medical College, Huhehot
"Clinical use of fresh garlic was satisfactory in repairing eardrum perforations in 18 cases (1 having perforation in both ears) except 1 with irreversible chronic otitis media. The time required for healing by this method was 16 days in 12 cases with perforations smaller than half of the eardrum pars tensa and 28 days in 6 cases with perforations larger than half of it. 10-19 db hearing was gained after treatment.
Of the 18 cases, 6 had increased exudate in the middle ear during the latter part of the garlic treatment. Exudation stopped quickly after treatment was discontinued and anti-inflammatory measures were taken. It in 4 of these, healing took place soon after exudation was checked and in 2 it was necessary to repeat garlic application before the wound healed completely...
This method is indicated in adult's traumatic eardrum perforations within 3 weeks of injury provided there is no infection, perforation is not larger than half of the pars tensa and there is sufficient eardrum left around the perforation edges. It in cases where the duration of perforation is over one month and its edges have already become cicatrized, repairing with fresh garlic slice can only be started after 50% trichloro-acetic-acid has been used to cauterize the edge (repeat the cauterization every few days, if necessary), until the formation of whitish ring (0.1-0.2 mm width) and reddish granulation.
Prepare a fresh clove of garlic carefully, peel it but leave the transparent epithelium-layer tightly attached. The external auditory canal is sterilized routinely. Slice off a very thin piece of the garlic clove (about 0.2 mm thick) shaping it just large enough to cover the perforation. Keep the epithelium-layer attached to the garlic slice and insert it into the ear canal and carefully push it against the eardrum so that its cut surface hugs the peroration while the epithelial layer covered surface faces the external auditory meatus. Pack the external auditory meatus with an alcohol moistened cotton ball. Forceful blowing of the nose is prohibited and water should not be allowed into the ear canal in order to prevent infection. Usually the garlic slice should be replaced once or twice a week until healing is complete. Stop treatment when the middle ear becomes inflamed with excessive exudate and start anti-inflammatory treatment.
Garlic is a strong stimulant which hastens growth of new granulation, contains allin (C6H11O3NS) which rapidly breaks down to yield the antibiotic allicin (C6H10OS2) in the presence of enzyme allinase and water." (Chinese Med. Journal, 3 (3); pp. 204-205).
"With garlic, the patient himself is doctor, pharmacologist, nurse, and pharmaceutical manufacturer all in one."
--Yoshio Kato
Yoshio Kato of the Oyama Garlic Laboratory in Japan has written a very comprehensive booklet entitled, Garlic, The Unknown Miracle Worker. It in it he describes a unique process of garlic juice therapy known as FLOW-LEBEN. in his own words:
"FLOW-LEBEN is a total therapy system of medical application, particularly the external application of garlic. Application for the patents has been made in ten countries. Already the patents have been granted in four countries. (The Republic of China, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.)
It is very well known that garlic contains all the elements except Vitamin D. It is also known that garlic essence warms the body and promotes better circulation of the blood .... Aillin, an oily substance contained in garlic, diluted as much as 200 times can kill typhoid germs.
Another study reported that garlic juice diluted 30-40 times stops the growth of certain types of bacteria in a nutrient media--garlic has strong germicidal properties which are not found in other plants. When aneurinase bacteria grow in the body, the majority of the internally produced vitamin B1 is spoiled by this bacteria--garlic shows antipyretic effects when it, diluted with water, is applied externally to a person's body at times of high fever.
FLOW-LEBEN is the only system in the world by which we can obtain the maximum effects from garlic. The first unit was completed in 1970. It in this clinic, various concentrations of garlic-water solution are sprayed on the bodies of patients by means of atmospheric pressure compressed air (2 to 7 lbs.) shot through atomizing nozzles. Hydraulic pressure is employed in the newer models. This process stimulates the body's metabolism and removes cholesterol from the blood. Various functional disorders are eliminated and skin diseases are also cured by the germicidal effect of garlic."(Kato, 1973, pp. 173-175)
The unique and very deluxe treatment has been effective in treatment of ringworm, skin cancer, frostbite, and other skin disorders using a 100% solution of garlic juice.
Richard Lucas in Nature's Medicines, published in 1966, presents the history of the Four Thieves Vinegar:
"It in Marseilles, a garlic-vinegar preparation known as the Four Thieves was credited with protecting many of the people when a plague struck that city (1722). Some say that the preparation originated with four thieves who confessed that they used it with complete protection against the plague while they robbed the bodies of the dead. Others claim that a man named Richard Forthave developed and sold the preparation, and that the "medicine" was originally referred to as Forthave's. However, with the passing of time, his surname became corrupted to Four Thieves." (Lucas, 1966, p. 38)
We now have the modern version of the formula. It is known as the Super Garlic Immune formula. It consists of fresh garlic, apple cider vinegar, pure vegetable glycerine, U.S.P., honey, garlic juice, fresh comfrey root, wormwood, lobelia, marshmallow root, oak bark, black walnut bark, mullein, skullcap, and uva-ursi. We recommend that you have several gallons of the preparation on hand in storage and hope that you will not need it. But, at the time of writing this article, a radio broadcast informed us of a case of Bubonic Plague with ensuing death in Lake Tahoe, U.S.A. The medical authorities were trying to locate all of the persons with whom the late subject came in contact in hopes of isolating the infection so the general public would not become exposed to this disease. The plague, related to the Black Plague in Europe during the 1300's, left people dead in their tracks and hanging out of windows waving goodbye to their friends. According to Herman Hesse, a German Writer, Goldmund was a young man who left a 14th century monastery and became a vagabond. He enjoyed the merriment of the wanderer as he traveled through Europe tasting the pleasures of love and life. All this was to change as Hesse describes the character's feeling of powerlessness and horror as he wanders throughout plague-stricken towns, cities, and rural areas observing the Hand of Death had reached everywhere; striking people regardless of their social standing or age. He describes a grotesque scene in a farm cottage where an entire family lay frozen after the throes of death.
Go to GARLIC PAGE 2
The brilliant Dr. Edward Shook, herbalist, pharmacist and one of our illustrious teachers, began his lectures on garlic with the phrase of the Gentle Shepherd, "Consider the Lilies. . . " Garlic is a member of the Liliaceae family which also includes the onion. This is Dr. Shook's botanical description of garlic:
Allium Sativum. Natural order. Liliaceae.
Common Names Garlic, poor man's treacle.
Part used. Bulb.
Description. The leaves are long, narrow, and much like grass.
The bulb (the only part used) is compound, consisting of numerous bulblets, commonly called "cloves," grouped together between the membrane scales, and enclosed within a whitish skin which holds them as in a sac. The whitish flowers are located at the end of stalks growing directly out of the bulb. They are grouped together in globular umbels with spathes surrounding them.
It will pay us handsomely to consider this lily because it is one of nature's great masterpieces as a safe and certain remedy for many of man's serious and devastating diseases.
This wonderful herb has been used from very ancient times both as food and medicine.
Theophrastus, the Greek philosopher (born 372 BC) relates that garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on piles of stone at the crossroads as a feast for Hecate (literally a feast for the gods.)
Virgil, the Roman poet (70 BC) in his eclogues states that garlic was part of the entertainment served by Nestor to his guest Machaon. He also tells us that it was owing to the virtues of garlic that Ulysses owed his escape from being changed by Circe into a pig like each of his companions.
Galen speaks very highly of it, eulogizing it as the "theriac" or "heal all."
Chaucer calls it "theriac" as do several old English botanists and herbalists.
Pliny gives an exceedingly long list of complaints in which it was considered beneficial.
The name garlic is of very ancient Anglo-Saxon origin being derived from gar (a spear) and lac (a plant) in reference to the shape of its leaves. It is one of the oldest medicinal remedies known to man, which has been cultivated and used from time immemorial in the treatment of many diseases. Both its romantic history and its very remarkable curative virtues are vastly interesting and educational to all earnest and honest physicians, and it is notable that it stands out today as one of our greatest and most important therapeutic agents.
It is alterative, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, antispasmodic, antiasthmatic, stimulant, antiseptic, disinfectant, tonic, nervine, antiphthisic, germicide, and vermicide. Chemical Constituents: Volatile oil (25 percent), mucilage (35 percent), albumen, sugar, starch, fibrin, and 50 percent water. The oil is a rather complex substance, of a strong, intensely penetrating odor and consists of allyl compounds of sulfur. It will be seen that this remarkable herb is heavily laden with organic sulfur, but no oxygen is found in the oil. Yet, it is the action of oxygen when the skin is taken off the cloves that releases the sulfur by combining with an allyl group to form allyloxide, which is also a pungent liquid having a sulfur odor.
Many marvelous effects and healing powers have been claimed for garlic. It is probable that none of them were exaggerated. I, myself, have seen it cure tuberculosis, asthma, bronchitis, several skin diseases, stomach ulcers, leg ulcers, athletes foot, furunculosis, abscesses, epilepsy, and special affinity for the respiratory tract, lungs, bronchi, and so forth, though it diffuses itself through the whole system and wherever there is pus, it is a certain and safe remedy. The use of garlic in the World War as an antiseptic was most sensational. In 1916, the British government asked for tons of the bulbs offering one shilling a pound for as much as could be produced. A great quantity of it was used for the control of suppuration in wounds. The raw juice was expressed, diluted with water, and put on swabs of sterilized sphagnum moss which was applied to the wounds. Where this treatment was given, it has been proved that there has never been one single case of sepsis of septic results. Consequently, the lives of tens of thousands have been saved by this one miraculous herb. That was nearly many years ago, and still we do not find garlic as an official remedy in the United States Pharmacopeia. This is one of the most disgraceful facts connected with the so-called regular practice of medicine, and proves beyond all doubt that their practice is neither ethical, moral, or even humane; otherwise, such a miracle of healing power would never have been discarded as it was.
In olden days, garlic was employed as a specific for leprosy, psoriasis and several forms of exanthematous skin diseases. It was also believed to have most beneficial results in smallpox applied to the soles of the feet in a linen cloth renewed daily.
Those unacquainted with garlic might think this was merely superstition; but, as a matter of fact, it is quite true. If chopped or minced fresh garlic is placed on the soles of the feet and allowed to remain there for some time, it will not be long before the odor of garlic can be detected on the breath; and cases of purulent disease in different parts of the body have been reported completely cured by simply keeping an application of garlic to the soles of the feet, and renewing it once or twice a day.
We positively know that organic sulfur is a universal antiseptic, whether taken internally or applied outwardly to any part of the body. It has been authoritatively reported that tuberculosis has been successfully treated by inhalation of the freshly expressed juice of garlic, diluted with equal quantities of water.
Garlic was the principal ingredient in the famous Four Thieves Vinegar which was adapted so successfully at Marseilles for protection against the plague when it prevailed there in 1772. This originated, it is said, with four thieves who confessed that, while protected by the liberal use of aromatic garlic vinegar during the plague, they plundered the dead bodies of the victims with complete safety. It is stated that during an outbreak of infectious fever in certain poor quarters of London early in the last century, the French priests who constantly used garlic in all their dishes visited the very worst cases with impunity, while the English clergy caught the infection, and in many instances, fell victims to the disease. Another instance of the remarkable penetrating power of garlic is the fact that the expressed juice of fresh garlic mixed with olive oil and rubbed on the chest, throat, and between the shoulder blades gives great relief in whooping cough, asthma, bronchitis and dyspnea, according to an English physician who has used it with success for many years. It also has a reputation for safely reducing high blood pressure, and in this relation we have an exceedingly valuable formula.
Boiling garlic reduces its active virtues considerably. Vinegar and water both extract its curative principles, though vinegar alone seems to be more effective for that purpose. Expressed fresh juice of garlic contains all of its many virtues. The following priceless formulas will cover its therapeutic applications completely for asthma, bronchitis, catarrhal conditions of the mucous membranes, phthisis, tuberculosis, coughs, dyspnea, heart weakness, internal ulcerations, and so forth.
Garlic Syrup
Peel 1 pound of fresh garlic, then chop or mince. Put into a wide mouthed jar and add equal parts of vinegar and distilled water to just cover the garlic. Close tightly, shake well, then let stand in a cool place for four days, thoroughly shaking once or twice a day. Now, add one pint of glycerine, shake well, and let stand another day. Strain with pressure, then filter liquid through a muslin or linen cloth. Add three pounds of pure honey, and stir till thoroughly blended. Put into jars, seal tightly, and store in a cool place.
In order to cover the pungent odor of the garlic, in case it is objectionable, do the following:
In place of macerating the garlic in equal parts of vinegar and distilled water, as directed above, use 1 quart of vinegar in which 3 ounces of powdered caraway seed and 3 ounces of sweet fennel seed have been slowly boiled for 15 minutes, while closely covered. Strain and when cold, add 1 pint of glycerine. Use this in the above formula instead of the vinegar and distilled water mixture.
This is much more acceptable to those who have an antipathy to the smell and taste of garlic. Of course, the 3 pounds of honey are also added after the filtering process. The deviation in no way affects the curative properties of the garlic, while it helps materially to disperse gas and flatus. We use aromatic vinegar in our own preparation of this formula, which is one of the most meritorious and useful remedies to have on hand. It is harmless, and very effective in the above mentioned cases, and will please and astonish both you and the patient.
Dose: For asthma and coughs: 1 teaspoonful with or without water every 15 minutes until spasm is controlled; then 1 teaspoonful every 2 or 3 hours for the rest of the day. After that, 1 teaspoonful 3 or 4 times a day is usually sufficient.
For tuberculosis, cardiac asthma and dyspnea: 1 dessertspoonful to a tablespoonful 3 or 4 times a day between meals.
Children: (8 to 15 years) one half of the above dose; (5 to 8 years) one quarter dose; (1 to 4 years) one eighth in a little water or honey
Garlic has also been used successfully in dropsy. The above formula may be used with benefit, but the following will be found to be much more prompt and effective, especially where the heart is much involved.
Dropsy with Heart Involvement.
Boil 8 ounces lily of the valley root (cut) (Convallaria majalis) in 3 pints of distilled water for 20 minutes. Strain then boil slowly till reduced to 1 pint. Set aside to cool, and while still warm, add 8 ounces of expressed garlic juice, 8 ounces of brown cane sugar, and 1 pint of glycerine. When cold, bottle and keep in a coot place.
This is one of the most potent remedies for dropsy and heart disease ever devised.
Dose: 1 teaspoonful to a dessertspoonful in water, as required. The dose should be regulated and given every 3 hours to bring about diuresis. Also, a slowing of the heart action, and an increase in the tone of its contraction. After this effect has been produced, administer 1 teaspoonful in water 3 or 4 times a day.
Garlic for outward application: For eczema, pityriasis, psoriasis, ulcers, cancers, swollen glands, tubercular joints, necrosis and all purulent conditions that are accessible, we recommend the following formula:
These garlic formulas we have given you are priceless. It will pay you to study them, and utilize them with confidence whenever occasion arises."
--(Shook, 1978; reprint. pp. 69-73)
Dioscorides, a second century physician and herbalist who traveled with the army of Alexander the Great, has the following to say on the subject of garlic. Dioscorides was translated into middle English by a scholar of the middle ages:
SKORODON Allium Sativum
LEUKOSKORODON Allium Ampeloprasum
OPHIOSKORODON Allium Scorodoprasum
ELAPHOSKORODON Allium subhirsutum
Garlic
Garluk (some call it Geboscome againe Elaphoboscum, the Latins Allium) some of it is Satiue & growes in gardens & this in Egypt, being only but of one head as the teeke, sweet, inclining to a purple colour. But elsewhere, it is compacted of many white cloues, the cloues that therein (the Greeks) call Aglithai. But there is another wilde kinde, called Ophioscorodon. (that is Serpent's Garlick). It hath a sharp, warning biting quanitie, expelling of flatulencies, and disturbing of the belly, and drying of the stomach causing of thirst & puffing vp, breeding of boyies in ye outsyde of the body, dulling the sight of the eyes. And the same thinges don also, (as we should say, Hart's garlick). Being eaten, it driues out the broade wormes, and drawes away the vrine. It is good, as none other thing, for such as are bitten of vipers, or of the Haemorrhous, who being taken presently after, or else that being beaten small in wine & soe dranek. It is applyed also by ye way of Cataplasme both for the same purposes profitably, as also layd on upon such as are bitten of mad dogge. Being eaten, it is good against the chaunge of waters (fauces expediende, easdeings asperas leniendo.) It doth cleare the arteries & being eaten either raw or sod, it doth assuage old coughes. Being dranck with decoction of Origanum, it cloth kill lice and nitts. But being burnt, and tempered with bony it cloth cure the sugillationes oculorum, and Alopeciae being anointed on, but for the Alopeciae (it must be applyed) with vnguentum Nardinum. And with salt & oyle it cloth heale ye eruptiones papularum. It doth take away also the Vitiligines, & the Lichenes, & the Lentigenes, and the running ulcers of the head, and the Furfures & ye Lepras, with hony. Being sod with Taeda and Franckincense, & kept in the mouth it doth assuage the paine of ye teeth. And with figge leaues & Cummin it is a Cataplasme for such as are bitten of the Mygale. But the leafes decoction is an insession that brings downe the Menstrua & the Secondas. It is also taken by way of suffumigation for ye same purpose. But the stamping that is made of it and ye black olive together, called Myrton, cloth moue the vrine & open ye mouths of ye veins & it is good also for the Hydropicall."
(Dioscorides, Book 11, pp. 188-91, under the heading of "Sharp Herbs.")
Let's go into some interesting historical facts on garlic, a most revered patriarchal herb:
"Garlic, a cousin of the lily originated in Central Asia or India, where the early peoples enjoyed eating raw garlic as an enhancement to their meals. They also enjoyed longevity, and the lowest incidence of cancer on the planet." (Messegue, 1979, p. 132)
The builders of the pyramids of Egypt were paid in the coin of the realm; onions and garlic, a valuable commodity.
These builders of the pyramids of Cheops, a Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh, consumed great quantities of garlic. It was during these times that garlic was elevated to the rank of a deity.
The Ebers Papyrus, 1500 BC, one of the earliest herbal pharmacological documents we know, mentions garlic used in external applications for wounds.
Here is a quotation from the Bible:
"We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt for Nought, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." (Numbers 11:5)
According to Helen Noyes Webster, who interpreted the above quotation in her book, Herbs, How to Grow Them and How to Use Them, the Israelites traveling with Moses obviously missed the garlic when they went toward the Promised Land. If Moses had carried garlic, the Israelites may have been able to avoid intestinal putrefaction from eating the desert's available lizards and snakes.
Homer mentions garlic in his famous Odyssey. The deity Mercury, or Hermes, gave garlic to Odysseus as a protection against the goddess Circe's evil sorcery in which she turned men to swine. The athletes of the original Olympic games in ancient Greece traditionally chewed a clove of garlic before participating in the games. Galen, an early Greek doctor, spoke of garlic as the panacea of the common man. Hippocrates prescribed the eating of garlic for uterine tumors. The Vikings and the Phoenicians always carried garlic on their ocean voyages.
The crusaders brought garlic back to France. (In those days, it was a common law that two men's lives could be sacrificed in order to save a 100 lb. sack of peppercorns.)
A French herbalist, Messegue, born in Gascony, France, states that all the children born in that province are baptized with a clove of garlic on the lips. The emperor Charlemagne recommended that his subjects cultivate garlic. King Henry IV of France was baptized with a clove of garlic on his lips, and although he was said to have chewed a clove of raw garlic every morning upon arising, he was still very popular with the ladies.
The National Cancer Institute central files show that the incidence of cancer is extremely low in France where garlic consumption is the greatest and that garlic eaters in Bulgaria do not have cancer. It is reported in a textbook on pharmacognosy that a physician in British Columbia has successfully treated malignant situations by prescribing the eating of garlic.
The prophet Mohammed recommend that garlic be applied externally on the sting of the scorpion or the bite of the viper in the 7th century.
"The herb becomes the teacher. Men stray after false goals while the herb he treads (or in these days, stomps upon) knows much much more."
The above quote was written by Henry Vaughn, the early 17th century poet and mystic, as well as Hermetic philosopher during the days when the Doctrine of Signatures was popular. The Doctrine of Signatures was the method by which the ancients recognized the usage of a plant. According to Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century English Physician and Herbalist, "and by the icon or image of every herb, man first found out their virtues. Modern writers laugh at them for it, but I wonder in my heart how the virtues of herbs first came to be known, if not by their signatures. The moderns have then from the writings of the ancients--the ancients had no writings to have them from."
The 17th century "moderns" felt that garlic, with its hollow stalk, helps afflictions of the windpipe. We know this to be a truth; that garlic is an antihistamine, and has been successfully used in bronchial and pulmonary disorders. As we examine some of the virtues of garlic, we find that the claims of the old Doctrine of Signatures will be far surpassed.
The National Dispensatory of 1887 gives us a fine description of the constituents of garlic at a period in our medical history when Syrupus Alli was an official U.S. preparation.
Constituents.--Besides the cellular tissue, garlic contains between 50 and 60 percent of water, 35 percent of mucilage some albumen, sugar, starch, and about 1 percent of volatile oil, to which its odor and taste are due. In its crude state, oil of garlic is of a dark brown-yellow color, heavier than water, of a very interesting taste, and consists of oxide and sulphides of allyl. The rectified oil consists mainly of the sulphide, (C3H5) 2S, is colorless, lighter than water and may be obtained artificially by treating an alcoholic solution of potassium sulphide with allyl iodide. It dissolves easily in alcohol and ether, and sparingly in water ... Garlic, macerated in water or vinegar, yields its virtues to these liquids.--(p. 154)
They also describe its physiological action and medicinal uses:
Physiological action and Medical Uses--Garlic as well as leek and onion, is a stimulant to the part to which it is directly applied and to be the whole system. Its odorous element may be perceived on the breath and its taste in the mouth when the bruised bulb has been applied to the skin. When eaten raw, its odor "hales from many parts of the body, and, given to nursing women, it taints their milk, so that their infants refuse the breast. It reddens the skin, and may even vesicate it. Internally, it stimulates the digestive organs, and is everywhere used, but principally in southern countries, as a condiment for various kinds of food. The odor or garlic is popularly employed to revive persons from a swoon or from hysterical insensibility. It is a vermifuge not to be neglected in the treatment of lumbricoid worms when given by the mouth, and for destroying ascarides when administered by the rectum. Many cases of dropsy, particularly of anasarea produced by cold, have been cured by a diet of bread and raw onions. This regimen will sometimes produce copious diuresis. Onions boiled in milk have been used successfully for a like purpose. Bruised cloves of garlic and poultices of boiled onion are admirable remedies for chronic bronchitis in children. They should be applied over the whole front of the chest. Internally, garlic is a very useful agent in the same affection. It is also a domestic remedy for whooping cough. Onion poultices are particularly applicable to abscesses; the core of a roasted onion relieves earache when introduced into the auditory canal. Onion and garlic cataplasms applied to the perineum relieve strangury. The dose of bruised or chopped garlic or of the expressed juice is about 30 grains (Gm 2). (p.154-155)
Frances Ward published this summary of garlic in her post-World War II book, British Herbs:
"GARLIC Allium Sativum, Amaryllidaceae
Anyone who travels in Italian buses might be forgiven for deciding never to grow this unpleasant smelling plant, and one can quite appreciate the decision of the old Greeks that people who ate Garlic should not be allowed in the temples of Cybele.
But from early times it has been considered a very useful medicine, and in the Middle Ages in Britain it was believed to be, either by itself by itself, as a 'simple', or mixed with other herbs, one of the cures for leprosy. Lepers were often called 'pilgarlics', as they were made to peel their own garlic, certainly a mark of identity and a means of segregation!
Throughout the ages it was held to have antiseptic properties, and during the 1914-18 War, sterilized Sphagnum Moss soaked in Garlic juice was used for suppurating wounds, a reminder of the old method of treating leprous sores. From time to time, even in modern days, Garlic has been claimed to have marvelous properties; now, in addition to its stimulating powers, it is held to be beneficial in digestive complaints and for coughs, colds and asthma.
Cultivation of Garlic is a fairly easy matter, though it needs a finely sifted soil similar to that of an onion-bed. The cloves should be set about 2 in. in the ground about February or March, and lightly covered with soil. The bulbs may usually be lifted during August. There is generally a demand for Garlic from druggists, and good prices have been paid for it." (Ward, 1949, p. 159).
It in the medical literature we find several references to garlic as a therapeutic agent.
Phytocides of garlic suppress the proteinases (cathepsin) in malignant tumors of humans (postoperative material) and of experimental animals. These phytocides also inhibit cathepsin in the liver of cancerous animals, the activity of which increases during malignant growth. This action was detected by adding garlic extract to inoculated Ehrlich carcinoma. The results may be useful in further studies on garlic in the diet of cancer patients." (p. 140)
Joseph A. Di Paolo and Christopher Carruthers of the Roswell Park Memorial Institute of Buffalo, New York, wrote an article in Cancer Research, 1960. The title is, "The effect of Allicin From Garlic on Tumor Growth." By the way, Allicin is responsible for the odor in garlic, so the new odorless garlic isn't quite as effective as regular garlic. For those fortunate souls who can ingest raw garlic; the garlic breath can be obliterated by chewing on a raw clove (not a garlic clove, but the spice clove), or putting a drop of peppermint of spearmint oil on the tongue.
Chester J. Cavallito and John Hays Bailey writing in the Journal of the Chemical Society, Volume 66, November, 1944, discuss the antibacterial principle of garlic, allicin. They isolated allicin, a colorless oil, from garlic cloves and found it to be effective against the following bacteria strains both gram positive and gram negative:
Organism
STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
STREPTOCOCCUS HEMOLYTICUS
STREPTOCOCCUS VIRIDANS
B. SUBTILIS
B. TYPHOSUS
B. PARATHYPHOSUS A
B. PARATHYPHOSUS B
B. PARATYPHOSUS KUNZENDORF
B. MORGANI
B. ENTERIDITIS
B. TYPHI-MURIUM
B. DYSENTERIAE SHIGA
B. DYSENTERIAE FLEXNER
B. DYSENTERIAE SONNE
V. CHOLERAE
(P. 1951)
H. Dold and A. Knapp, German Researchers writing in Chemotherapy section of Biological Abstracts in the 1950's discovered that garlic was effective against Streptococci, Escherichia coli, Bacillius prdigiosis, B. proteus, B. Subtilis, Shigelia paradysenteriae Flexner, Eberthelia typhosa, Salmonella enteritidis and Vibrio cholerae. It was more effective when crushed than sliced. It in addition, garlic exhibited some bacterial action even through the air. Bacteria could not be made resistant to the garlic either. The antibacterial action of garlic juice became somewhat weaker after having been stored in the ice box for 8 days and after boiling for 10 minutes. Remember, too, that when garlic is cooked above 130 degrees F., the enzymes in it are destroyed, and the organic sulphur in the garlic now becomes a harmful form of inorganic sulphur.
A most unique article appeared in the Chinese Medical Journal in May of 1977;
"GARLIC SLICE IT IN REPAIRING EARDRUM PERFORATION"
by Hsu Wei-cheng
Teaching Research Group of Ear, Nose and Throat Department, Inner Mongolia Medical College, Huhehot
"Clinical use of fresh garlic was satisfactory in repairing eardrum perforations in 18 cases (1 having perforation in both ears) except 1 with irreversible chronic otitis media. The time required for healing by this method was 16 days in 12 cases with perforations smaller than half of the eardrum pars tensa and 28 days in 6 cases with perforations larger than half of it. 10-19 db hearing was gained after treatment.
Of the 18 cases, 6 had increased exudate in the middle ear during the latter part of the garlic treatment. Exudation stopped quickly after treatment was discontinued and anti-inflammatory measures were taken. It in 4 of these, healing took place soon after exudation was checked and in 2 it was necessary to repeat garlic application before the wound healed completely...
This method is indicated in adult's traumatic eardrum perforations within 3 weeks of injury provided there is no infection, perforation is not larger than half of the pars tensa and there is sufficient eardrum left around the perforation edges. It in cases where the duration of perforation is over one month and its edges have already become cicatrized, repairing with fresh garlic slice can only be started after 50% trichloro-acetic-acid has been used to cauterize the edge (repeat the cauterization every few days, if necessary), until the formation of whitish ring (0.1-0.2 mm width) and reddish granulation.
Prepare a fresh clove of garlic carefully, peel it but leave the transparent epithelium-layer tightly attached. The external auditory canal is sterilized routinely. Slice off a very thin piece of the garlic clove (about 0.2 mm thick) shaping it just large enough to cover the perforation. Keep the epithelium-layer attached to the garlic slice and insert it into the ear canal and carefully push it against the eardrum so that its cut surface hugs the peroration while the epithelial layer covered surface faces the external auditory meatus. Pack the external auditory meatus with an alcohol moistened cotton ball. Forceful blowing of the nose is prohibited and water should not be allowed into the ear canal in order to prevent infection. Usually the garlic slice should be replaced once or twice a week until healing is complete. Stop treatment when the middle ear becomes inflamed with excessive exudate and start anti-inflammatory treatment.
Garlic is a strong stimulant which hastens growth of new granulation, contains allin (C6H11O3NS) which rapidly breaks down to yield the antibiotic allicin (C6H10OS2) in the presence of enzyme allinase and water." (Chinese Med. Journal, 3 (3); pp. 204-205).
"With garlic, the patient himself is doctor, pharmacologist, nurse, and pharmaceutical manufacturer all in one."
--Yoshio Kato
Yoshio Kato of the Oyama Garlic Laboratory in Japan has written a very comprehensive booklet entitled, Garlic, The Unknown Miracle Worker. It in it he describes a unique process of garlic juice therapy known as FLOW-LEBEN. in his own words:
"FLOW-LEBEN is a total therapy system of medical application, particularly the external application of garlic. Application for the patents has been made in ten countries. Already the patents have been granted in four countries. (The Republic of China, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.)
It is very well known that garlic contains all the elements except Vitamin D. It is also known that garlic essence warms the body and promotes better circulation of the blood .... Aillin, an oily substance contained in garlic, diluted as much as 200 times can kill typhoid germs.
Another study reported that garlic juice diluted 30-40 times stops the growth of certain types of bacteria in a nutrient media--garlic has strong germicidal properties which are not found in other plants. When aneurinase bacteria grow in the body, the majority of the internally produced vitamin B1 is spoiled by this bacteria--garlic shows antipyretic effects when it, diluted with water, is applied externally to a person's body at times of high fever.
FLOW-LEBEN is the only system in the world by which we can obtain the maximum effects from garlic. The first unit was completed in 1970. It in this clinic, various concentrations of garlic-water solution are sprayed on the bodies of patients by means of atmospheric pressure compressed air (2 to 7 lbs.) shot through atomizing nozzles. Hydraulic pressure is employed in the newer models. This process stimulates the body's metabolism and removes cholesterol from the blood. Various functional disorders are eliminated and skin diseases are also cured by the germicidal effect of garlic."(Kato, 1973, pp. 173-175)
The unique and very deluxe treatment has been effective in treatment of ringworm, skin cancer, frostbite, and other skin disorders using a 100% solution of garlic juice.
Richard Lucas in Nature's Medicines, published in 1966, presents the history of the Four Thieves Vinegar:
"It in Marseilles, a garlic-vinegar preparation known as the Four Thieves was credited with protecting many of the people when a plague struck that city (1722). Some say that the preparation originated with four thieves who confessed that they used it with complete protection against the plague while they robbed the bodies of the dead. Others claim that a man named Richard Forthave developed and sold the preparation, and that the "medicine" was originally referred to as Forthave's. However, with the passing of time, his surname became corrupted to Four Thieves." (Lucas, 1966, p. 38)
We now have the modern version of the formula. It is known as the Super Garlic Immune formula. It consists of fresh garlic, apple cider vinegar, pure vegetable glycerine, U.S.P., honey, garlic juice, fresh comfrey root, wormwood, lobelia, marshmallow root, oak bark, black walnut bark, mullein, skullcap, and uva-ursi. We recommend that you have several gallons of the preparation on hand in storage and hope that you will not need it. But, at the time of writing this article, a radio broadcast informed us of a case of Bubonic Plague with ensuing death in Lake Tahoe, U.S.A. The medical authorities were trying to locate all of the persons with whom the late subject came in contact in hopes of isolating the infection so the general public would not become exposed to this disease. The plague, related to the Black Plague in Europe during the 1300's, left people dead in their tracks and hanging out of windows waving goodbye to their friends. According to Herman Hesse, a German Writer, Goldmund was a young man who left a 14th century monastery and became a vagabond. He enjoyed the merriment of the wanderer as he traveled through Europe tasting the pleasures of love and life. All this was to change as Hesse describes the character's feeling of powerlessness and horror as he wanders throughout plague-stricken towns, cities, and rural areas observing the Hand of Death had reached everywhere; striking people regardless of their social standing or age. He describes a grotesque scene in a farm cottage where an entire family lay frozen after the throes of death.
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