Garlic has been known since ancient times. The Egyptians, who elevated it to the rank of divinity, engraved its image (in 4500 BC) on one of the three pyramids at Giza.
In this way, we also learned that Pharaoh Cheops distributed a daily ration of garlic to his workers, to give them strength and protect them from epidemics.
Egyptian medicine urges parents to put a garlic necklace around their children’s necks to drive away worms – a procedure still used today.
Grandmothers in the country, faithful to this method, still apply it today with great success. They also give their grandchildren to drink a cup of milk (in which they have boiled two or three cloves of garlic), sweetened with the same number of teaspoons of honey.
Key takeaways and some important benefits of garlic
Garlic (Allium sativum) is a plant native to Africa and Central Asia, which was introduced to Europe in ancient times and used as a spice, as well as for therapeutic purposes, being considered a universal panacea.
Plant product used: both in traditional and scientific medicine, the bulbs composed of bulbs (garlic cloves) (Bulbus Allii) are used.
Active principles: volatile oil (rich in allyl and allylpropyl sulfides), allicin, vitamins B and C.
Pharmacological action: vasodilator and hypotensive, antimicrobial, stimulant and anthelmintic.
Uses: internally it is used on a small scale due to the persistent odor it leaves in the oral cavity, however, it can be successfully administered in the treatment of hypertension, using for this purpose the juice obtained by pressing the bulbs (and it is recommended to be stabilized); also as an anthelmintic (with good results in combating roundworms and pinworms).
Consuming 2-3 cloves of garlic per day also gives good results in the treatment of pharyngitis, intestinal infections, provides long-term oral antisepsis and prevents flu complications. Externally, in the form of enemas (as a garlic maceration), it is used in the treatment of pinworms.
Contraindications
Garlic is contraindicated for people suffering from a skin disease, stomach or intestinal irritations. It is categorically forbidden for breastfeeding women.
To neutralize the smell of garlic
Chew a piece of apple, red beet, 2-3 coffee beans, a few anise grains or a sprig of parsley.
Before entering the stadium, Greek athletes chewed garlic to be in shape. The Romans ate garlic, and their soldiers considered it a powerful tonic. Didn’t they also mix garlic into the food of fighting cocks?
In the Middle Ages, monks cultivated garlic and used it to disinfect wounds, to dress ulcers, to treat sprains and rheumatism.
It is known that Henri d’Albert rubbed garlic on the lips of his nephew (the future King Henri IV) immediately after birth, to give him health and good cheer; perhaps also to respect the tradition, which attributed to garlic a magical power against charms (the evil eye).
Let’s continue with this brief history of garlic, then move on to its most important natural remedies
In Sweden, a clove of garlic is hung around the neck of cattle to protect them from evil spirits. During the plague epidemic of 1726, four thieves from Marseille, who were robbing houses, escaped with their lives by betraying the secret of their immunity: the consumption of a large amount of garlic soaked in a mixture that became famous under the name of “the antiseptic vinegar of the four thieves”.
During the great epidemics of plague, cholera and typhus, those who approached the sick chewed garlic continuously and put a few cloves of garlic under the mask they wore.
Finally, let’s remember that in China, where garlic consumption is important, cancer cases are very rare.
Natural remedies and benefits of garlic for internal use
Angina pectoralis
1. Mix one kilogram of quality honey with 5 heads of garlic along with 10 lemons that have been chopped in a meat grinder (or using a food processor).
Soak for a week in the refrigerator. It can be consumed for 2 months, approximately 2-4 teaspoons, once a day, approximately 20-30 minutes before eating. The resulting composition is kept in the mouth for a little longer, then you can swallow it. (Another option would be: mix only the juice obtained from lemons and garlic with the honey.)
2. In an enamel saucepan, put 2 glasses of concentrated chicken (or vegetable) broth, add a cleaned and peeled head of garlic.
Boil over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add 2 bunches of finely chopped parsley and mash the mixture using a wooden spoon until a uniform paste is obtained. Infuse until cool. You can drink in 3 stages, approximately 30 minutes before eating.
Arthritis
Chew a clove of garlic every morning, on an empty stomach. Garlic dissolves the crystals that, when accumulated, cause hardening (sclerosis) of the arteries.
It is indicated for all diseases that originate in poor blood circulation. Put as much garlic as possible in your daily food, an average of two cloves per day.
Asthma
1. Let 4-5 cloves of garlic macerate for ten days in a quarter liter of 90-degree alcohol. At the time of the crisis, pour a few drops on a piece of sugar, which you slowly suck (you can also crush one of the garlic cloves between your teeth, which you have previously powdered with sugar).
2. Peel one kilogram of garlic and place it in two well-wiped jars. Fill the jars with water and boil for 2 hours on a steam bath.
Strain the juice and mix with 1 kg of honey. Take one tablespoon daily, 20 minutes before meals.
Atherosclerosis, arteritis
1. Mix 250 grams of crushed garlic with 350 g of liquid honey (fresh) and leave for 7 days in the dark.
Take one tablespoon, 3 times a day, 30 or 40 minutes before eating. A cure lasts 1.5 months. After a 7-day break, the cure is repeated.
2. Chew a clove of garlic every morning, on an empty stomach.
Bronchitis
Boil 2 cloves of garlic in a quarter liter of milk for 15-20 minutes. Strain and drink the soothing milk as hot as you can when you feel a coughing fit coming on; also in the evening, before going to sleep.
Cholesterol
Boil 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 3 teaspoons of crushed garlic in 1/2 liter of water. Drink it hot, sip by sip, three times a day.
Difficult digestion
In the morning, on an empty stomach, eat a garlic stew. The peasants say: “This cleanses the intestines.”
Dyspnea
Chop 400 grams of garlic and mix it with the juice of 24 lemons in a glass jar, which is tied at the neck with a piece of gauze. This mixture is left to macerate for a period of 24 days where it is dark.
Shake before consumption. You can drink a teaspoon, together with a quantity of 150 ml of cold water, in the evening, just before falling asleep. The first results appear in about 2 or 3 weeks: sleep will become deeper, calmer and much healthier, and suffocation and asthenia will disappear.
Flu, lung diseases
Pour 250 grams of boiling water over a variable quantity of crushed garlic.
– for adults: between 50-60 grams
– for children up to one year: 15 grams
– for children up to 5 years: 25 grams
– for children up to 12 years: 40 grams
Let it steep for 12 hours. Take every two hours, respecting the following doses: one teaspoon of coffee up to 5 years; one dessert spoon up to 12 years; one soup spoon from 12 years and up.
Gout
Consume one teaspoon of crushed garlic, mixed with one teaspoon of honey, 3 times a day, 15 minutes before meals, for 21 days.
Hemorrhoids, varicose veins
Chew a clove of garlic in the morning on an empty stomach.
Hypertension
1. In the morning, on an empty stomach, drink the contents of a glass of water, in which you have soaked a crushed clove of garlic the night before.
2. Eat 2-3 cloves of garlic in the morning and evening (eat for 2 days, take a break for 2 days).
Loss of appetite
Garlic stimulates appetite, promoting gastric secretion. One of our grandmothers’ specialties was a salad with bacon pieces, with which we eat toast rubbed with garlic.
Rheumatism
Let about 30 grams of grated garlic soak in a quarter liter of 90-degree alcohol for a month and a half and take two drops of this preparation before the two main meals, for six weeks.
For a poultice, use a few crushed garlic heads instead of mustard flour. The pain will be greatly relieved.
You can also crush 2-3 cloves of garlic in two tablespoons of olive oil and massage your aching joint or muscle.
Tapeworm
Take a large head of garlic, peel and grate the cloves and boil them in milk for 20 minutes.
Drink this decoction in the morning on an empty stomach and refrain from eating until lunch. Repeat this treatment daily until the tapeworm is expelled.
Whooping cough
The villages of northern Italy recommend garlic syrup, prepared from 500 grams of crushed garlic cloves and a liter of boiling water.
Let the garlic scald (infuse) for an hour, then filter the liquid (through a sieve). Add sugar until a syrup forms. Take 20-30 drops in the morning on an empty stomach.
Intestinal worms
1. Drink a decoction made from 25 grams of garlic in a glass of water or milk twice a day, let it simmer slowly for 20 minutes.
For pinworms (white intestinal worms), follow this remedy for several periods between identical phases of the moon, immediately after the moon begins to wane.
2. Warm enemas are also recommended in the morning and evening with a decoction of 6-8 cloves of garlic in half a liter of water.
Natural remedies and benefits of garlic for external use
Anemia, general weakness
Mix two parts of camphor oil with one part of crushed garlic and massage your spine. Our ancestors used garlic cloves as suppositories.
Also, chew a clove of garlic every morning on an empty stomach.
Corns, calluses, warts
Gently rub the horny excrescence, morning and evening, with a clove of garlic cut in half, repeating the operation for 15 days, or crush a clove and apply it in the form of a fresh poultice, tied with a bandage.
Dermatosis
Boil a few cloves of garlic, mix with an equal amount of honey, spread on a piece of folded gauze and apply to the affected area. Place a piece of foil from a chocolate bar on top and bandage it.
Repeat daily, until the “scales” disappear, then for another month, 2-3 times a week.
Toothache
1. Peel a clove of garlic, crush it and rub it on your gums in the area of the aching tooth. If the pain is severe, leave the garlic on the aching tooth for about an hour.
2. To relieve pain caused by a cavity, insert a mixture of grated garlic and fresh butter into the tooth cavity.
3. Cut a large clove of garlic in half lengthwise. Apply each half with the cut side to the wrists, where doctors take the pulse.
The garlic pieces are fixed with adhesive tape or bandaged with a strip of gauze.
Earache
You should preferably cut a clove of garlic into thin strips, then take them with a piece of cotton wool (similar to a plug) and then insert the cotton wool into the affected ear.
It is good to lie down on the bed and then cover the ear with a thick scarf made of wool. Alternatively, you can also put drops in your ear with garlic oil, which you can prepare in the following way: try crushing a quantity of 3 cloves of garlic and then mix them together with 3 tablespoons filled with olive oil.
Next, you should put the mixture that resulted in this way in a bottle and let it sit for about a week at room temperature. Then you will strain the oil through a thick sieve.
Insect stings
Remove the needle, then rub the painful area with a clove of garlic cut in half.
Fingernail fungus
Put 250 ml of peeled garlic and 125 ml of olive oil in a glass container. Keep the mixture in the sun for three days.
Apply the preparation to the diseased areas, after previously cleaning the macerated area under the nails, washing it and drying it well.
Rheumatism
Let young garlic ferment in alcohol for a few weeks and rub the painful parts affected by rheumatism with that liquid.
Do the rubbing as usual, morning and evening, pouring a little liquid into the palm of your hand and rubbing the painful area well for a few minutes.
Jug
It is enough to cut a clove of garlic in half and gently pass it with the juicy side over the place where a jug is formed. The procedure is repeated if necessary, but the effect is quick.
Varicose veins
Grind about 30 cloves of garlic, then mix with 10 liters of hot water, and then boil the mixture for 30 minutes. Infuse for 8-10 hours, then heat 5 liters of water with garlic to 40 degrees and pour into a bucket, where both feet can fit.
In the remaining 5 liters, put some ice cubes. Then take some alternate baths: keep your feet in hot water for 2 minutes, then move them to cold water for 30 seconds.
The procedure takes about 20 minutes. I noticed that the temperature keeps changing 10 times, and the last time some cold water is poured on the surface of the feet and then wool socks are put on.
Other natural remedies and lesser-known benefits of garlic
Garlic (Allium sativum) has, according to ancient doctors, an “immense” healing power. Massaging the skin with garlic neutralizes snake bites and scorpion stings.
Applied to the wound, along with a little honey, garlic heals dog bites. The smell of pressed garlic repels insects, including moths.
By boiling it with wine, honey and vinegar, a drink is obtained that destroys intestinal worms.
Combined with the oil in which it was boiled (with the peel intact) and used as a poultice, garlic is very effective in treating venomous bites, contusions, and against pain and tumors in the bladder.
Hippocrates recommends the smoke of burnt garlic, allowed to penetrate the uterus, for faster elimination of the placenta.
Macerating garlic in milk eliminates intestinal worms. (Crush 3 bulbs and scald them with a cup of boiling milk.) After ingestion, do not eat anything for 6 hours.
Boiled in milk and consumed, garlic soothes lung pain. Headaches succumb to a poultice of garlic and beans, boiled together and applied to the temples.
A few drops of goose fat impregnated with garlic and instilled in the ear are extraordinarily effective in soothing pain. A plaster composed of crushed garlic and lard is another effective natural remedy.
Boiled in water, garlic combats cough or asthma, and baked on the stove, it clears the voice. Boiled in soup, it transmits healing virtues to it, and it diminishes difficulties with urination and defecation.
Garlic eaten in the morning, on an empty stomach, is a protector against the important health problems that certain foods and water from infected sources can cause.
Thumbnail photo source:
Photo by team voyas on Unsplash