GARLIC - A CURE FOR CANCER?

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Although garlic is best known for its ability to stave off heart disease, scientists have also been examining the role of raw garlic as cure for cancer.

While previous studies had suggested that a human would need to eat their own weight in garlic before gaining any benefits, new research suggests half a raw clove would be enough!

Rex and Christine Munday, a husband and wife research team based in New Zealand, were looking at what is thought to be one of the key ingredients - a substance called diallyl disulfide which causes the gut to produce enzymes that can clear it of cancer-causing particles.

Their findings – which have been reported in New Scientist magazine - were based on giving rats varying doses of disulfide, and found that it increased levels of the enzyme by up to 60%.


Rex Munday told the magazine:

‘...it's been recognised that garlic is an inducer of these enzymes, but previous studies have all been with doses at meaningless levels. They implied you'd need to eat your own weight in garlic to achieve beneficial effects...’
Instead, the Mundays found that in rats the benefits could be measured at between 0.075mg and 0.3mg of disulfide per kilogram of body weight, or half a clove of garlic for the average human.

Lesley Walker, head of science information at the Cancer Research Campaign, had this to say on the matter:

‘...it's an interesting study, but people shouldn't get too excited about it. It's lovely to think that eating half a clove of garlic reduces the risk of bowel cancer, and if you like garlic then go for it - but don't necessarily be surprised if you then develop cancer...’Diallyl disulfide was first proven to have the ability to slow the growth of bowel cancer in 1995.
Dr Sujatha Sundaram, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, found that it caused human bowel cancer tumour cells to shrink and die when transplanted into mice.

Dr Sundaram was also responsible for finding another compound found in garlic that slowed the growth of breast cancer in rats.

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