Five thousand years ago, 15 pounds of garlic ( Allium sativum ) would buy a slave in Egypt. It's said that slaves there went on strike when garlic was withheld from their diet. Roman legions considered caraway bread and garlic their "survival foods." The herb was important, too, in Greek, Chinese, and Hebrew cultures. These ancients were wise in their esteem of this plant, sometimes called "a ruffian with a heart of gold." The essential oil that gives this ruffian its pungent odor and healing power is sulphide of allyl. Garlic is rich in iodine and contains antiseptic and mosquito-repellent properties. During World War I, wounds were treated with sterilized pads of sphagnum moss soaked in diluted garlic juice, and herbalists have long used it as a diuretic and to produce perspiration.
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