Onion, Garlic, and Atherosclerosis

Effects of garlic extract consumption on plasma and erythrocyte antioxidant parameters in atherosclerotic patients

“…Although many studies were performed on garlic ingestion and atherosclerotic diseases, no good agreement has been obtained since many of the trials suffered from significant methodological shortcomings including inappropriate methods of randomization, poorly characterized subject groups, short duration, and inadequate statistical methods (Silagy and Neil, 1994b). However, several studies suggested that garlic may have beneficial effects in the atherosclerotic process (Vatsala et al, 1980;Sainani et al, 1976Sainani et al, , 1978Sainani et al, , 1979. Although some unique properties of garlic like antithrombotic and lipid lowering potentials have been investigated (Mansell and Reckless, 1991;Arora and Arora, 1981;Bordia et al, 1977;Kiesewetter et al, 1990;Chutani and Bordia, 1981;Pedraza-Chaverri et al, 2000a), and studies have been performed to elucidate their mechanism(s) of action (Rahman and Billington, 2000;Dillon et al, 2003;Lau, 2001), little or no work has gone into elucidating possible effects of garlic extract consumption on blood antioxidant parameters in atherosclerotic patients.…”

The pharmacological effects of allicin, a constituent of garlic oil

“…Partially purified distilled extracts of garlic have also been reported to inhibit human platelet aggregation in vitro, but the effect on arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism in platelets is uncertain [2,3]. It has been reported that garlic oil or garlic juice reduces serum cholesteron [4][5][6] and the ~everity of atherosclerosis [5,6] in rats and rabbits ~ed a high fat cholesterol diet. Allicin (diallyl diulfide-oxide), a known antibacterial agent in ~arlic [7] and the oil which gives garlic its characPresent address: Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA.…”

Metabolic effects of onion and green beans on diabetic patients.

“…In Indonesian rural areas traditional medicines are still widely prescribed ; onion and green beans represent two of the frequent ones. Previous investiga tions (Jain et al 1974;Sainani et al 1976;Pipir et al 1980;) reported hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic properties of onion and green beans, however, no complete data to be resulted in.…”