Garlic has been popular in India and was first used in Middle Asia in ancient times. Garlic has all but one of the known six tastes that exist. The six tastes are salty, sweet, pungent, astringent, bitter and sour. Garlic combines all these tastes except for the sour taste. Garlic has a variety of uses including food and medicine ones. It is a useful laxative, an efficient digestive and a powerful aphrodisiac. It is oily, pungent, warm and heavy.
Medicinal Use
Garlic is medicinally useful in easing cough, edema, heart diseases, acidity, hard breathing, dyspepsia, chronic fever, tuberculosis, windiness, constipation, worms, asthma and colitis. It is also useful in easing the process of calcification for bones to harden and heal in the case of a fracture. Garlic contains proteins and minerals including Calcium, Phosphorus and Iron, Vitamin C, Carbohydrates in significant ratios of 29% of its composition and water of up to 63%.
How to consume garlic
A good way to consume garlic for the maximal benefit is the raw garlic juice. Crush and pound it to extract the juice. Mix one or two teaspoons of garlic juice with water and take or have it in sauce form. Garlic can be used as a home remedy as well. These are some of the main aspects related to its usefulness as a home remedy.
Coughs
Garlic, as we have already observed, makes a good home remedy. It is commonly used and recognized as an easy-to-make, inexpensive yet effective remedy for coughs. It has a lot of antiviral and antibiotic properties. It is also a sure remedy resulting in expectoration from the lungs or throat. It is known to dislodge phlegm and helps to cough up stubborn bacteria and mucus from the lungs.
Raw garlic is good for coughs
For coughs, garlic should especially be consumed raw. The recommended amount of garlic cloves one should have in a day is about four to eight depending on size. If this becomes hard to the stomach and it mostly does this, you may add it to salads or if you’re cooking add the raw juice when the food is cooked so as to preserve the efficacy of the raw garlic. Garlic broth may also be prepared for the cough. Crush up to three garlic cloves and add four pints of water then let it boil on little heat for close to one hour. You then sieve until it is ready and in the end add a spoonful of honey and some lemon and sip.
Heartburn
As unexpected as it sounds, garlic is a home remedy for heartburns. Unexpected because its combination of tastes is so unique that it is flaming and may be thus pointed to as a cause rather than remedy for a heartburn. But quite the contrary applies in this case because raw garlic is full of antibiotics and kills the micro-organisms that cause the inflammation of the lining of the stomach and the rest of the gut.
Raw garlic is good for heartburn
When heartburn occurs, it is advisable to chew a clove or two of raw garlic. If heartburns or gastritis are commonly experienced, you may have some stored drink of apple cider in which cloves of garlic have been immersed. Sip some of the cider cocktail whenever the heartburn occurs. The heartburn disappears as fast as it comes.
Antiseptic
Garlic is a powerful antiseptic. It kills both fungi and bacteria. It is also a protective agent against infection if used regularly. Allicin is an active principle (a pungent oily liquid with antibacterial properties) found in freshly ground garlic, which opposes and mitigates the effects of these microbes. In fact, the biological name for garlic is allium sativum which indicates that allicin is a significant part of the composition of garlic.
Prepare the healing mix
Mix one part of garlic juice with three parts of water to create the antiseptic. This can be used for cleansing infected wounds and ulcerations, and for putrefaction where it removes the offensive odor and improves the general condition of the foul ulcer within a day or two. Pus formation generally reduces and the pain consequently ceases.
Where the pus and slough is excessive, the antiseptic will have to consist of equal parts of garlic juice and water for greater efficacy. Garlic antiseptic is commonly used for cleaning wounds and ulcers in Russia. Garlic juice mixed with equal parts of water is also useful in killing cholera germs. It can be used in treating water where it kills both gram positive and gram negative bacteria.
Hypertension
Garlic is endowed with properties that reduce hypertension or high blood pressure as it is commonly known. It is a natural and easy way to manage and reduce the effects of this condition. This has increased the popularity of garlic as a home remedy for hypertension. Garlic reduces atherosclerosis and gives relief to the heart. This is because it is a blood thinner and helps to lower cholesterol in the blood so there is little chance that fatty deposits will get attached to the walls of the arteries and cause heart diseases.
When crushed, raw garlic releases allicin which has antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. These also help fight many diseases that may result in hypertension. The heart is thus relieved and vitalized. Controlling the diet is however the key to managing hypertension. Focus on eating types of food that is rich in potassium and fiber and low in saturated fats to lower the risk of stroke and hypertension.
Other Uses
Other uses for garlic include fighting stress and fatigue, treating cancer, snake bites, sinus congestion and maintaining a healthy functioning of the liver. It boosts the immune system too. It has also been used to treat skin infections. Care should however be taken against applying it directly to the skin because it can literally burn it.
Little to no side effects
Extreme side effects of garlic are very thin on the ground. If its consumption is high, one may occasionally get mild symptoms such as nausea or heartburn. Furthermore, when garlic is being used to treat heart disease, care should be taken to avoid it crossing the effects of medication. Finally, garlic has a strong pungent smell. Expect to get bad breath while ingesting garlic for treatment.