Garlic's History of Healing

I grow lots of garlic and look forward to my mid-October garlic-planting ritual when the weather is usually still warm enough to work without a hat and gloves, the biting insects have disappeared, and there’s not much other outside work to do. Find out how to plant garlic in the fall.

I save the best bulbs from the season’s garlic crop (harvested in July), separate them into cloves, plant each clove 2 inches down and 4 to 5 inches apart, then cover with a few inches of straw or leaf mulch. That’s it! The sprightly garlic shoots emerge as the first early spring greenery. Check out our Garlic Plant Page to find out more about planting garlic.

Garlic’s Long History of Healing

Historical records from India and Egypt referring to garlic date back 5,000 years, ranking garlic as one of the world’s oldest horticultural crops. It’s easy to grow and harvest, and many varieties will store well for long periods.

A wide variety of folkloric and traditional uses for “the stinking rose” have appeared throughout history: The ancients variously recommended garlic as an aphrodisiac and male potency enhancer; as a charm to ward off devils, werewolves, and vampires; as an adhesive for mending glass and porcelain; as a mordant for gilding; as food for enslaved people and laborers to promote strength and physical endurance and for soldiers to promote battlefield courage; and as an insect repellent, and squirrel and mole deterrent.

But across many centuries and cultures, people have valued garlic for its health-promoting properties as a preventative or cure for conditions as varied as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, athlete’s foot, colds, influenza, intestinal worms, ulcers, bronchitis, many forms of cancer, dandruff, arteriosclerosis, skin infections, cholera, constipation, epilepsy, gangrene, ear infections, high blood pressure, laryngitis, heavy-metal poisoning, leprosy, malaria, measles, meningitis, hemorrhoids, ringworm, scurvy, food poisoning, smallpox, snakebites, tuberculosis, and typhoid.

Contemporary research has validated some of these claims and questioned others, although many scientists around the world continue to study garlic’s healing potential.

And why not? It’s inexpensive, safe, and readily available, with thousands of years of cross-cultural use as a primary natural healing agent—and it grows just about everywhere. Read about even more helpful uses of raw garlic.

Get the Health Benefits of Garlic: Just Eat It!

With so many delicious ways to use garlic in your daily diet, don’t wait for science to confirm its usefulness in treating diseases. Serve it often because you love the taste. Mince it into salad dressings; add it to casseroles, soups, and stews; give your pizza a garlic topping. 

If you can’t tolerate the flavor of raw or lightly cooked garlic, try roasted garlic for an ambrosial treat. The sharp flavor mellows and the flesh becomes soft and easy to spread or blend into dips, soups, casseroles, or sandwich fillings. 

Caution: To prevent the growth of deadly botulinum bacteria, don’t infuse raw garlic in olive oil or any other salad or cooking oil​ unless you plan to use it right away. You can safely infuse raw garlic in vinegar because the acid in the vinegar prevents the botulinum bacteria from growing.

Note: Many Web articles tout garlic-containing products as insecticides, insect repellents, and mole-control agents, but studies show that these products aren’t really effective. Some agricultural experts suggest sprinkling a mixture of granulated garlic and cayenne pepper into the planting hole to prevent squirrels from demolishing your fall-planted tulip bulbs.

Eat your garlic—for health!