Old garlic with bright green shoots better for heart than fresher counterpart
Old garlic bulbs that have bright green shoots have been found to be good for heart health as they have even more heart-healthy antioxidant activity than its fresher counterparts.
But those benefits are for fresh, raw garlic. Sprouted garlic has received much less attention.
When seedlings grow into green plants, they make many new compounds, including those that protect the young plant against pathogens.
Jong-Sang Kim and his group reasoned that the same thing might be happening when green shoots grow from old heads of garlic.
They found that garlic sprouted for five days had higher antioxidant activity than fresher, younger bulbs, and it had different metabolites, suggesting that it also makes different substances.
Extracts from this garlic even protected cells in a laboratory dish from certain types of damage. “Therefore, sprouting may be a useful way to improve the antioxidant potential of garlic,” they conclude.
The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Source: Medindia
Published: 27 Feb 2014
Category: Features, Wellness and Complementary Therapies
