The entire ancient world loved garlic, especially the Egyptians. Egyptian slaves were given a daily ration of garlic because it was believed garlic would increase strength and endurance and also ward off sickness. Garlic has been used as both a food and medicine for thousands of years, dating back to when the Egyptian pyramids were built. In early 18th-century France, gravediggers drank crushed garlic soaked in wine, believing it would protect them from the plague. During both World War I and II, soldiers were given garlic to prevent gangrene. It was also used as an antiseptic, which when applied to wounds supposedly prevented infection.
Garlic was used as money, with fifteen pounds of garlic buying a healthy male slave. When Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, they complained about not having the finer things in life, which included fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.
Garlic is used for many conditions related to the heart and blood system. These conditions include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, heart attack, and hardening of the arteries. Some of these uses are supported by science. Garlic can actually be effective in slowing the development of atherosclerosis and seems to be able to modestly reduce blood pressure.
Garlic bulbs planted in the fall start root growth as soon as they're planted, allowing these vegetable plants to be ready for top growth the following spring. Garlic plants produce a bulb that contains sections known as cloves. The garlic bulb that I bought at the grocery store for the picture contained 20 cloves; however, some of these cloves were quite small.
Before becoming a game protector, I was a milkman in Harrisburg. I remember every spring, I would receive complaints about the milk having a garlic taste. It coincided with the time that the farmers turned their cows out to pasture, where the cows grazed on the field garlic, Allium vineale. This field garlic can also have an effect in beef products. This species of garlic had been introduced in Australia and North America and has now become an invasive species in Eastern United States and the lower Mississippi Valley. It is considered an invasive weed as grain products can become tainted with either a garlic odor or flavor in the presence of bulbs at the time of harvest. Due to the structure of the wild garlic’s leaves, which are vertical, smooth and waxy, herbicides do not cling well, making wild garlic resistant to herbicides. This garlic is a serious pest when growing in lawns, pastures and meadows. There is also a wild garlic that grows in moist meadows and open woods that also appears in late spring or early summer.
During WWI, the Russian Army used garlic to treat wounds incurred on the front line. Even though Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, the Russian Army doctors relied so much on garlic that it became known as Russian Penicillin.
There is much folklore surrounding the use of garlic. By eating garlic before making a journey at night, foul breath would keep away evil spirits, and also, if a garlic pickle was eaten before going through a mountain pass, early Koreans believed that they would be protected from tigers. However, the most well known garlic folklore is associated with vampires, which was made famous in Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula. In the novel, Lucy was protected from vampires by garlic being placed around her neck and all around her room.
Today, it is still a common belief that eating garlic is a natural mosquito repellent.
Although garlic is grown globally, China is by far the largest producer, with approximately 10.5 million tons grown annually, which accounts for over 77% of world output. India produces 4.1%; South Korea 2%; Egypt and Russia tied in fourth place with 1.6% and the United States, where garlic is grown in every state except for Alaska, in sixth place with 1.4%. This leaves 16% of global garlic production in countries each producing less than 2% of global output. Much of the garlic production in the United States is centered in Gilroy, California, which calls itself the "garlic capital of the world”.