In the 19th century, a famous French chemist and biologist named Louis Pasteur, experimented and concluded that garlic had antibacterial properties. He showed how garlic killed bacteria. Many studies in many countries confirm that garlic has antibiotic properties that are definitely effective against different types of bacteria.
An antibiotic, such as penicillin, is a chemotherapeutic agent* that can destroy the growth of other microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. They are commonly used in the prevention against certain diseases. Although pharmaceutical antibiotics can help destroy many microorganisms and reduce infectious diseases, these products also have many cons. Antibiotics can be very powerful but they can also lose their effectiveness against certain microorganisms. Antibiotics can encourage the development of resistant strains of bacteria.*. Garlic on the other hand, does not seem to lose its effectiveness. In the 1907’s, European researchers tested garlic liquids against 10 different types of bacteria and found out that garlic was effective against every single one of them. This means garlic has a definite absence of development of resistance. Another major problem with pharmaceutical Antibiotics is the many side effects such as soft stools or diarrhea, stomach aches, and more severe ones such as vomiting, vaginal itching, white patches on tongue, etc.
* Resistant strains of bacteria: the capability of a microorganism to resist the effects of an antibiotic.
More and more antibiotics are becoming useless because of over-prescription and their side effects therefore, garlic could have a role to play in today’s medicine. Many pharmaceutical antibiotics kill only a limited amount of microorganisms. Garlic has the widest range of antimicrobial* that we know of.*
Sulfur compounds and allicin compounds of garlic are the main ingredients responsible for garlic’s effectiveness as an antibiotic. Allicin is a strong effective antibiotic...