(Nov 24) STUDIES show garlic to be one of nature's most powerful antibiotics. It heals wounds by direct application.

According to old housewife's tale it is a flu buster when taken raw. It is said to be good for the heart. Some swear that it brings down blood pressure. Others say it reduces cholesterol.

Some vegetarians won't eat it because it is supposed to boost sex drive. But it is great in the kitchen when you want to cook a tasty meal.

But studies tend to vary widely in their results -- some showing benefits, others not.

New research suggests a reason why those results are varied, and why garlic actually is a healthy dietary choice for the heart.

Garlic is a vegetable, belonging to the allium family along with leeks and onions.

However, garlic has a unique characteristic. When you crush a garlic clove, a whole slew of nature's chemicals are released.

This activates the components of garlic that are believed to provide healthy benefits such as protection against bacterial and fungal infections, blood clots, circulating blood cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Recent laboratory research at the University of Alabama (UA) reveals the mechanism that makes garlic a heart helper.

And according to a HealthDay News report, the UA team began their research by crushing the garlic.

The study that appeared in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is in highly technical chemistry jargon.

Let me try simplifying it. After exposing human red blood cells to crushed garlic, the UA tests showed that the cells converted garlic-derived components called organic polysulfides into hydrogen sulfide, a molecule that protects blood vessels by reducing inflammation and relaxing vessel walls.

So the trick is in the preparation. If hydrogen sulfide helps keep blood vessels elastic and healthy, and garlic works with the body to create hydrogen sulfide, why are some garlic studies inconclusive or show little benefit for the heart?

According to David Kraus, Ph.D., the lead UA researcher, if garlic is not prepared properly its benefits are negligible or lost altogether. And the key, apparently, lies in the crushing. Dr Kraus told HealthDay that he and his team not only crushed the garlic used in their study, they allowed about 15 minutes for the resulting chemical cascade to fully take effect. It is the "crushing" and then the "waiting". That does the trick.

Dr Kraus also noted that some garlic trials have tested the vegetable as an LDL-lowering agent. Such research is bound to fail, he says, because the trials are looking for garlic activity that he calls "impossible".

Another nutrition researcher confirmed this, telling HealthDay that hydrogen sulfide has no effect on cholesterol.

Of course, the UA study only gives us an insight into the effects of properly prepared fresh garlic.

But according to Simon Mills and Kerry Bone in their textbook on botanical medicine, Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, when garlic is dried in powdered form at low temperatures, the garlic enzyme allinase and the active compound alliin remain intact, converting to allicin in the digestive tract, which is the same chemical chain of events that follows the crushing of a garlic clove.

But of course, you have heard and maybe even smelt that "garlic breath" caused by the sulfur compounds in garlic.

There is another way to make garlic work well for you. And it also helps deal with the smell. Age it. Keep it for a long time.

Ageing it seems to activate the important compounds and at the same time reduces the odour.

Aged garlic is very well researched and used. The results are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Some of the institutions involved are Loma Linda University, Brown University, Penn State University, Rutgers University, Cornell, the National, Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Health.

Almost 400 scientific studies have been completed on aged garlic extract, done in major universities worldwide.

These studies have focused on a variety of heart disease risk factors such as cholesterol, high blood pressure, homocysteine levels, inhibiting LDL oxidation, anti-platelet aggregation and adhesion, stimulating blood circulation; in addition to other studies on immune stimulation, cognitive effects, liver function and anti-tumor effects.

"Aged garlic extract has well-known antioxidant properties. The aging process eliminates garlic breath as well as those harmful properties, leaving only the antioxidants that protect against disease," said lead UCLA researcher David Heber, M.D.

Datuk Dr Rajen M. is a pharmacist with a doctorate in Holistic Medicine.