WASHINGTON Garlic, long known as a way to ward off vampires andintimate conversation, now is believed to help protect against breastcancer and heart disease.
Researchers assembled here last week for the first WorldCongress on the Health Significance of Garlic and Garlic Constituentssaid the days of bad-mouthing the pungent plant are over.
'A clove a day keeps the doctor away,' quipped John A. Milner,head of Penn State University's nutrition department, who preparedone of several reports on garlic for some 45 scientists from 15countries.
Milner said he found that garlic inhibits breast cancer inlaboratory rats by as much as 70 percent. 'We were really amazed by the results,' he said.
'It's no joke,' said Robert I. Lin, executive vice president ofNutrition International Co., of Irvine, Calif., sponsor of the garliccongress. Penn State and the U.S. Agriculture Department areco-sponsors.
He said eating an average of a clove of garlic a day would havemyriad health benefits, including helping to rid the body of toxicchemicals.
But Lin warned that it's possible to have too much of a goodthing. A bulb a day - or more than 20 grams of garlic - could damagered blood cells, he said.
Garlic, used for 4,000 years to cure a wide range of maladies,has been largely ignored by researchers until recently.
'In the last 10 years, the quality and quantity of research isup,' Lin said.
Other researchers also prepared reports for the garlicgathering.
Yu-Yan Yeh, an associate professor of nutrition in Penn State'sCollege of Health and Human Development, said he found in tests onlaboratory rats that the plant may help lower cholesterol and therisk of coronary heart disease.
Related research in Wisconsin showed garlic supplements to achicken's corn-based diet reduced cholesterol.
David Kritchevsky of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biologyin Philadelphia found that garlic or garlic oil inhibits lab-inducedarteriosclerosis - hardening of the arteries - in rabbits.
Garlic, liberally employed in cooking throughout Asia and inseveral European countries, has been used for thousands of years inmany nations on various bacterial, fungal, yeast and worm infections.Garlic also has been used as a herbal cure for blood disorders.
In China, garlic has been used for centuries to treat tumors andcancerlike conditions.
