garlic
Detection and classification of allexiviruses from garlic in China.

Chen J, Zheng HY, Antoniw JF, Adams MJ, Chen JP, Lin L.

Virology and Biotechnology Department, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R., China. jchen1 netease.com

Degenerate primers for RT-PCR were designed and used to amplify genome fragments ( c. 750 nt in the coat protein-ORF6 region) of allexiviruses from a total of 28 garlic samples from 24 provinces in China. Many samples contained more than one distinct sequence. A total of 60 different sequences were obtained. Phylogenetic analysis and two-way comparisons were used to assess the status of the sequences and to re-examine the criteria for distinguishing species within the genus. Most of the sequences could be allocated to either Garlic virus D or Garlic virus X on the basis of sequence similarity but some appeared to be intermediate between existing species. There were no sequences of Garlic virus C or Shallot virus X. A comparison with the related genera Carlavirus, Foveavirus and Potexvirus suggests that the published allexivirus species demarcation criteria may have been drawn too tightly and should be re-examined.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14991435&dopt=Abstract garlic



garlic
Chronic oral administration of raw garlic protects against isoproterenol-induced myocardial necrosis in rat.

Banerjee SK, Sood S, Dinda AK, Das TK, Maulik SK.

Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India.

Wistar albino rats (150-200 g) were fed raw garlic homogenate orally in three different doses (125, 250, 500 mg/kg/day) for 30 days. Isoproterenol (85 mg/kg, s.c. 2 doses at 24-h interval, animals sacrificed after 24 h of last injection) induced myocardial necrosis in control rats and after 30 days of garlic feeding. Myocardial oxidative stress was evident following isoproterenol administration by reduction in myocardial superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities along with a rise in plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Myocardial necrosis was evident from the light microscopic and ultrastructural changes, along with a rise in plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Significant preservation of myocardial SOD activity was observed in all the garlic-fed rats. However, there was no significant change in myocardial reduced glutathione level and GPx activity in any of the treated groups. Significant reduction in plasma TBARS and LDH levels was observed in the 500 mg/kg garlic treated group. Isoproterenol-induced myocardial morphological changes were least in the 250 and 500 mg/kg garlic treated groups. The results suggest that chronic oral administration of raw garlic offered protection against isoproterenol-induced myocardial necrosis and associated oxidative stress.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15012909&dopt=Abstract garlic



garlic
Inhibitory activity of essential oils of garlic and onion against bacteria and yeasts.

Kim JW, Kim YS, Kyung KH.

Department of Food Science, Sejong University, Kunja-dong, Kwangjin-ku, Seoul 143-747, Korea.

The essential oils of garlic and onion and their constituent sulfides with three or more sulfur atoms were potent inhibitors of yeast growth. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of garlic oil, onion oil, diallyl trisulfide, diallyl tetrasulfide, and dimethyl trisulfide for all the yeasts tested ranged between 2 and 45 ppm. The oils and their constituent sulfides, however, were only very weakly antibacterial, showing minimum inhibitory concentrations of greater than 300 ppm for most of the bacteria tested. The antiyeast activity of garlic oil and onion oil was storage stable and was not influenced by pH. Film formation on soy sauce by Zygosaccharomyces rouxii SS1 was completely prevented for 30 days by the addition of 30 and 40 ppm of garlic oil and onion oil, respectively.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15035364&dopt=Abstract garlic



garlic
Emergence of long-term memory for conditioned aversion in the rat fetus.

Gruest N, Richer P, Hars B.

Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de l'Apprentissage de la Memoire et de la Communication, UMR CNRS 8620, Universite Paris-sud, Bat 446, 91405 Orsay cedex, France.

Pregnant rats were subjected to garlic essential oil as the conditioned stimulus and 45 min later to LiCl as the unconditioned stimulus either on embryonic Days 15 and 16 (E15 and E16) or on 18 and 19 (E18 and E19). Control dams received only garlic, LiCl, or water. Progenies were tested on garlic drinking 6 weeks after the exposure to the stimuli via the mothers. In the E18 to 19 group, rats that were exposed to paired garlic-LiCl expressed a significant aversion for garlic. In the E15 to 16 group, no significant differences appeared between subgroups. These results confirm that an associative memory can be established before birth and suggests that this ability potentially emerges in a short time window of 3 days at the end of gestation. Moreover, it appears that a long-term memory can be acquired in utero and retained to be expressed postnatally when animals are autonomous. Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15054887&dopt=Abstract garlic



garlic
High-performance liquid chromatographic-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric evidence for Se-"alliins" in garlic and onion grown in Se-rich soil.

Auger J, Yang W, Arnault I, Pannier F, Potin-Gautier M.

I.R.B.I. UMR 6035 CNRS, Universite F. Rabelais, Parc de Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France. auger univ-tours.fr

Garlic and onion, are well known for their medical value, especially in against cancer and anticardiovacular diseases. "Alliins" (S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine sulphoxides) are sources of major active compounds in Allium plants. Se incorporation into garlic significantly increases activities of garlic in cancer prevention and inhibition. Selenomethionine, selenocysteine and Se-methylselenocysteine have been identified in garlic and onion. Previously we identified gamma-glutamyl-Se-methyl-L-selenocysteine, in extracts of garlic cultivated in Se-rich soil [Med. Res. Rev. 16 (1) (1996) 111], suggesting the possible existence of Se-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine selenoxides (Se-"alliins") in garlic. Several comparative experiments were carried out to demonstrate the existence of Se-"alliins" in Se-enriched garlic and onion. We found that there was one similar time-dependent Se signal in HPLC-inductively coupled plasma MS chromatograms of cold-water extracts of freeze-dried garlic powder and fresh garlic. This signal was lost when the extracts of garlic powder and fresh garlic were stored for 1 day at >4 degrees C, but remained in fresh onion extract at the same storage conditions. These phenomena and possible mechanisms are discussed. An additional experiment showed that Allium species cultivated in Se-rich soil might contain two different Se-"alliins".

Online source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15065784&dopt=Abstract garlic