article · Pharmacological Research - Modern Chinese Medicine
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, has a long history of use in managing diverse health conditions. Its therapeutic properties encompass broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against parasites, fungi, and viruses, alongside low toxicity. These medical benefits extend to managing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, rheumatism, cancer, and lipid levels, as well as providing neuroprotection. These biological actions stem primarily from bioactive sulphur compounds present in the plant, such as allicin, ajoene, diallyl disulfide, diallyl trisulfide, vinyl-dithiin, S-allylcysteine, and selenium. This review details these sulphur compounds and explains the specific mechanisms behind their therapeutic and metabolic effects. Currently, these phytochemicals are utilized by the food and pharmaceutical sectors to manufacture therapeutic and wellness items. However, further research remains necessary to establish safe and validated dosages for clinical disease management.
Garlic is widely accessible and recognised for its diverse health benefits. Understanding how its sulphur compounds function at a mechanistic level helps explain its effectiveness against infections, metabolic disorders, and chronic conditions. This knowledge supports ongoing scientific efforts to validate traditional remedies and establishes a basis for creating standardized, reliable health solutions.
The pharmaceutical and food sectors currently incorporate these sulphur compounds into wellness and therapeutic goods. Potential applications include standardized treatments for infectious and cardiovascular disorders. However, translating these findings into precisely dosed clinical therapeutics requires further research to verify safe, effective dosage levels, placing broader medical deployment beyond basic wellness products at an early-to-intermediate applied stage.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Allium sativum, the bulbous perennial plant of the Alliaceae family has been utilized as a very valuable remedy in the management of numerous diseases even from time immemorial. The plant exhibits antimicrobial activities over a wide range of microorganisms like parasites, fungi, virus and other pathogens. This broad- spectrum of antimicrobial activity coupled with the low toxicity of Allium sativum are an attraction to scientists and thus it has been vastly employed as a therapeutic cure in contemporary society. The therapeutic properties of Allium sativum (antibacterial, antiviral, fungicidal, anti-cardiovascular disease, anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-blood pressure, antiatherosclerosis, antirheumatic, hyperlipidemia) are linked to the sulphur compounds it contains (diallyl disulfide, allicin, diallyl trisulfide, ajoene's, vinyl-dithiin, micronutrient selenium and S-allylcystein. This review considers some sulphur compounds contained in Allium sativum and the mechanisms by which they elicit their biological actions. The journals for this review paper were retrieved from prominent database sources like Academia.edu (https://www.academia.edu), PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and Web of science (https://access.clarivate.com). Both medical headings and free text keywords were employed in the search “biological activities of allicin”, “biosynthesis of sulphur compounds in garlic”, “sulphur compounds in garlic”, “mechanism of action of antibacterial action of ajoene”, “S-allylcystein in garlic”, “mechanism of neuroprotection by vinvyl-dithiin”, “anticancer actions of dially disulfide”, mechanism of anti-quorum sensing actions of ajoene, antihyperlipidemic activity of allicin, mechanism of anti-platelet actions of ajoene and other related information from related journals. Allium sativum has many therapeutic properties; antibacterial, neuroprotection, antiviral, fungicidal, lipid metabolism, anti-cardiovascular disease, glucose metabolism, anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-blood pressure, antiatherosclerosis, antirheumatic, hyperlipidemia), these properties result from some sulphur compounds (diallyl disulfide, allicin, diallyl trisulfide, ajoene's, vinyl-dithiin, micronutrient selenium and S-allylcystein) which the plant contains. Within this paper, some sulphur containing phytonutrients in Allium sativum namely; allicin, ajoene, S-allylcystein, vinvyl-dithiin, dially disulfide, dially trisulfide and the mechanisms by which they carry out these actions are considered. The pharmaceutical and food industries have harnessed these phytochemicals in manufacturing both wellness and therapeutic products. Should more research be carried out on Allium sativum, safe and effective doses can be authenticated so that it can be safely included in the management of pathologies.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.prmcm.2023.100323
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
