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History
Garlic is one of the oldest herbs used medicinally by man.
As early as 3000 BC Chinese scholars wrote of garlic.
Ancient Egyptians worshipped it as a god. Garlic was of such value
to them, that 15 pounds of it would purchase a healthy male slave.
It was also reported that the pyramid builders went on strike when
deprived of their daily garlic ration!
At the beginning of the twentieth century, garlic's popularity
suffered a decline and became to be regarded as slightly improper
by bourgeois households in England and America. However, a comeback
has been made and today garlic is widely used both medicinally and
in food.
Horses
Horse owners throughout the world feed garlic to their horses in
order to:
- Repel flies and ticks
- Loosen coughs
- Fight off infection
- Improve peripheral circulation
- Aid digestion
Research
- Garlic extract was found by Singh et al in 1984 to be more potent
than several conventional antibiotics in inhibiting 8 out of 9
strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
- The Equine Research Centre in Canada has recently completed
an investigation into the antibacterial activity of garlic against
common equine bacteria. They found that the ideal dosage for horses
was about 65 g of fresh garlic.
- The main active ingredient of garlic is thought to be allyl
mercapton, the same compound that gives you "garlic breath".
Danger?
A recent magazine article (Hayes 2001) stated that garlic
is toxic to horses, giving rise to anaemic conditions. This has
given rise to great concern in the horse industry, causing a lot
of people to stop feeding garlic. But the research to which this
article refers was actually done on the onion, not on garlic itself.
After many years of feeding garlic to horses, no similar reactions
have been recorded, so it is unlikely that this extrapolation is
accurate. Nevertheless, further research is clearly needed and this
is presently taking place at the Equine Research Centre.
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