If you haven’t already heard, garlic is taking the medical world by storm, as it’s applications for health and chronic disease are second to none.

Garlic has been found to be antibacterial, antiviral, lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol… the list is pretty extensive. It works by using something called allicin, which has been found to be a garlic super power.

Now the thing with garlic, is how do you get as much of it into your system to merit having a medicinal application? Yeah it tastes nice, as part of a meal, yet have you tried to consume eight garlic cloves in quick succession? There’s a good chance you haven’t eh… haha

Now I mention this, as around eight garlic cloves is equivalent to a teaspoon of garlic powder. Which when we consider dosage of garlic for medical applications, this is quite important. The idea would be to get as much of the active compounds into the body as soon as possible to offer relief.

What would you rather consume? Eight individual garlic cloves, or would you just want a small drink with a tea spoon of garlic powder added. Now I’ve tried both ways, and find that just making a small drink with a teaspoon of garlic powder and downing it like a vodka shot is the most effective way to get allicin rich garlic on it’s way to working its magic.

Now I’ve done the powder for a while, and have found some pretty remarkable benefits from doing so. I have stronger teeth, better breath, increased vitality and so on. Yet there was never any clear information on whether powdered garlic is as good as fresh garlic, as to retain all of that allicin goodness.

The concern that I had, was whether or not the benefits of garlic were affected when garlic was reduced to a powder. Upon investigation, there does seem to be evidence which suggests that garlic is incredibly potent in those regards and retains twice as much nutrients than what the cooked counterpart had.

Now a study from an institution in Chicago called NutriSciences, investigated the allicin bioavailability or bioequivalence (ABB) of garlic supplements and foods. They found that the active ingredient allicin was as abundant in supplements that used garlic powder than what could be found from freshly crushed garlic.

The bioavailability of allicin from garlic powder supplements containing alliin and active alliinase can be as high as that from an equivalent amount of crushed raw garlic containing maximum allicin, when consumed with a meal.

Allicin Bioavailability and Bioequivalence from Garlic Supplements and Garlic Foods (2018)

This is great news for medicine, as garlic is being found to treat a vast array of conditions, and if we can process the garlic into powder, we can also give it a longer shelf life, therefore allowing stockpiles to be created.

There is evidence to suggest that modern antibiotics which come from penicillins or tetracyclines and so on can actually be toxic as they can lead to fungal infections, adverse reactions and extensive damage to gut bacteria.