Historical Use

<h3 >Historical use</h3>

<p >Garlic has been used as both food and medicine in many cultures for thousands of years, dating at least as far back as when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza_pyramid_complex" title="Giza pyramid complex" class="mw-redirect" >Giza pyramids</a> were built. Garlic is still grown in Egypt, but the Syrian variety is the kind most esteemed now (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Henry_Rawlinson" title="Sir Henry Rawlinson" class="mw-redirect" >Rawlinson</a>'s <i>Herodotus</i>, 2.125).

Garlic is mentioned in the Bible and the Talmud. Hippocrates, Galen, Pliny the Elder, and Dioscorides all mention the use of garlic for many conditions, including parasites, respiratory problems, poor digestion, and low energy. Its use in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China" title="China" >China</a> dates back to 2000 BCE.<sup id="cite_ref-Block2010_0-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic#cite_note-Block2010-0" >[1]</a></sup>

It was consumed by ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece" title="Ancient Greece" >Greek</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome" title="Ancient Rome" >Roman</a> soldiers, sailors, and rural classes (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil" title="Virgil" >Virgil</a>, <i>Ecologues</i> ii. 11), and, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder" title="Pliny the Elder" >Pliny the Elder</a> (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny%27s_Natural_History" title="Pliny's Natural History" class="mw-redirect" >Natural History</a></i> xix. 32), by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa" title="Africa" >African</a> peasantry. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen" title="Galen" >Galen</a>eulogizes it as the "rustic's theriac" (cure-all) (see F. Adams' <i>Paulus Aegineta</i>, p. 99), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Neckam" title="Alexander Neckam" >Alexander Neckam</a>, a writer of the 12th century (see Wright's edition of his works, p. 473, 1863), recommends it as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palliative" title="Palliative" class="mw-redirect" >palliative</a> for the heat of the sun in field labor.

In the account of Korea's establishment as a nation, gods were said to have given mortal women with bear and tiger temperaments an immortal's black garlic before mating with them.<sup class="Template-Fact" >[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" >citation needed</a></i>]</sup><sup class="noprint Inline-Template" >[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vagueness" title="Wikipedia:Vagueness" >vague</a></i>]</sup>This is a genetically unique, six-clove garlic that was to have given the women supernatural powers and immortality. This garlic is still cultivated in a few mountain areas today.

In his <i>Natural History</i>, Pliny gives an exceedingly long list of scenarios in which it was considered beneficial (<i>N.H.</i> xx. 23). Dr. T. Sydenham valued it as an application in confluent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox" title="Smallpox" >smallpox</a>, and, says Cullen (<i>Mat. Med.</i> ii. p. 174, 1789), found some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropsy" title="Dropsy" class="mw-redirect" >dropsies</a> cured by it alone. Early in the 20th century, it was sometimes used in the treatment of pulmonary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis" title="Tuberculosis" >tuberculosis</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthisis" title="Phthisis" class="mw-redirect" >phthisis</a>.</p>

Harvesting garlic, from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacuinum_sanitatis" title="Tacuinum sanitatis" class="mw-redirect" >Tacuinum sanitatis</a></i>, 15th century (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioth%C3%A8que_nationale" title="Bibliothèque nationale" class="mw-redirect" >Bibliothèque nationale</a>)</div>

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<p >Garlic was rare in traditional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_cuisine" title="British cuisine" >English cuisine</a> (though it is said to have been grown in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" title="England" >England</a> before 1548) and has been a much more common ingredient in Mediterranean Europe. Garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on the piles of stones at crossroads, as a supper for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hecate" title="Hecate" >Hecate</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophrastus" title="Theophrastus" >Theophrastus</a>, <i>Characters, The Superstitious Man</i>). A similar practice of hanging garlic, lemon and red chilli at the door or in a shop to ward off potential evil, is still very common in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India" >India</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic#cite_note-27" >[28]</a></sup>According to Pliny, garlic and onions were invoked as deities by the Egyptians at the taking of oaths. (Pliny also stated garlic demagnetizes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodestone" title="Lodestone" >lodestones</a>, which is not factual.)<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic#cite_note-28" >[29]</a></sup> The inhabitants of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelusium" title="Pelusium" >Pelusium</a>, in lower Egypt (who worshiped the onion), are said to have had an aversion to both onions and garlic as food.

To prevent the plant from running to leaf, Pliny (<i>N.H.</i> xix. 34) advised bending the stalk downward and covering with earth; seeding, he observes, may be prevented by twisting the stalk (by "seeding", he most likely meant the development of small, less potent bulbs).</p>