Garlic, a combination of a variety of medicinal and health-care ingredients, is a good product for both medicine and food. It is often used as a culinary adjunct in a variety of delicacies. In people's cognition, raw garlic seems to have such good reputation as anti-inflammatory, bactericidal, antioxidant, etc., while the effect of cooked garlic is insignificant, but this is not the case.

Whole or chopped?

The 2015 edition of "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" introduces garlic like this: "detoxification and swelling, insecticide, and dysentery. It is used for carbuncle, scabies, tuberculosis, cough, diarrhea, dysentery. The recommended dosage is 9g~15g ( That is, the amount of 2 to 3 cloves of garlic)".

Many of the benefits of garlic are due to its many chemical constituents, mainly including sulfur-containing organic compounds and saponins. The sulfur-containing organic compounds are important active substances, mainly including alliin and allicin (Allicin, also known as allicin). There is no allicin in the whole garlic, but after being cut or crushed, the alliin contained in the cells meets with allinase, and it is produced by a catalytic cleavage reaction.

Therefore, in order to better retain the active ingredients of garlic, it is recommended to cut or crush the garlic and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes before eating or cooking.

Allicin, the active ingredient of garlic, is not heat-resistant. When the temperature is higher than 80 ℃, it is prone to decomposition reaction. Some scholars believe that raw food is better if it is made into garlic paste. Few people stay away.

Raw or cooked?

First of all, eating cooked garlic can also get its nutrients. Every 100g of raw garlic contains 4.5g of protein and 27.6g of carbohydrates. It is not only rich in vitamins, but also has excellent content of trace elements such as selenium and zinc. The nutritional content of cooked garlic and raw garlic is not much different.

A study on the antibacterial effect of raw and cooked garlic showed that although the antibacterial effect of raw garlic was significantly higher than that of cooked garlic, cooked garlic also had a certain antibacterial effect.

Using a two-factor, three-level experimental design, Locatelli et al. analyzed the effects of pre-cooking (minced, sliced, whole) and cooking methods (raw, boiled, simmered, and oil-fried) on changes in the content of main sulfur compounds in garlic. The study revealed that there are significant differences between different treatments, which may be related to different processing degrees and high temperature exposure times. For the pretreatment method, minced garlic retained the highest allicin concentration, followed by sliced ​​garlic. So the combination way to get the most bioactive ingredients is frying-mincing garlic, followed by boiling-mincing garlic.

Not only that, some foreign scholars selected garlic from Poland, Ukraine, and Israel (comparable) to compare the bioactive components and antioxidant properties of fresh and cooked garlic (heated at 100 °C for 20 min, 40 min, 60 min) and found that Cooking fresh garlic at 100°C for 20 minutes can retain its bioactive components, antioxidant capacity and protein expression profile. The cooking time exceeds 20 minutes, and the longer the time, the more the active components are lost. That said, to maintain the biological activity of fresh garlic, it is best to add it in the last 20 minutes of the cooking process.

In this way, the strength of cooked garlic should not be underestimated. It is recommended to mince the garlic (better than slicing), and let it sit for about 15 minutes to enjoy or cook. It is recommended to fry or boil in oil. In order to retain more biological activity, it is recommended that the cooking temperature of garlic should not be too high, and the cooking time should not exceed 20 minutes.