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Effects on the Body: Increases sweating and urination and general stimulant.

Abortifacient Action: Contracts uterus, thins blood, and possibly embryotoxic.

Contains: Sulphur, oleanolic-acid, prostaglandin A, and phytoestrogen beta-sitosterol.

Description: Familiar garlic is a perennial or biennial plant with a bulbous corm made up of 10-20 cloves surrounded by white skin. Garlic grows to a height of 2 ft. (0.6 m); the spathe (unbranched stem) having flat, long, pointed leaves, ½ - 1 in. (1.3 - 2.5 cm) wide, that extend erect out to each side of the spathe in one plane. In summer, a long stalk rising from the center of the spathe, forms a bead of one umbel made up of densely compact flowers, of maroon to white hue.

Garlic Herbal Lore and Historical Use

Garlic was originally native to the Kirgiz region of Siberia in Asia. To the ancients, garlic bulbs, along with onion and chive bulbs were recognized as being symbolic of the universe. The layers of skin symbolized the layering of spiritual realms of ancient Egyptian cosmogony.[231] The common peoples’ faith in the spirit of garlic was so strong; they would swear their loyalty and trust by garlic when taking an oath.[232] Garlic was known to drive out sickness, or evil spirits, from the body. Ancient Greek midwives would generously hang garlic throughout the delivery room. The room would be filled with garlic’s warm, healing, antibacterial, ‘evil spirit’ abating vapor. When the baby was born, the women would fasten around the infant’s neck a necklace strung with protective garlic clove charms.[233]

The historical evidence of garlic’s powers as an emmenagogue and abortifacient is extensive. Dated to 1550 BC, the Egyptian Ebers Codex is one of the oldest preserved medical texts. It is in this ancient medical document that the use of garlic to alleviate menstrual disturbances is first mentioned. Garlic was used in a wine solution that was introduced into the vulva to bring about menstruation. In the Ebers Codex was another recipe. A plaster made of bread dough, crushed garlic, and the branches and leaves of cedar was placed on the abdomen for the same problem. The ancient Egyptian Kahoun and Carlsberg papyrus medical texts, and the Hippocratic (460 – 377 BC) treatise, On Sterile Women, state that if a pealed, clean clove of garlic is inserted into the vulva in the evening, by the next morning, if the woman’s breath failed to smell of garlic, one could tell that she would not conceive. In Diseases of Women, another work by Hippocrates, a garlic bulb is boiled, cooled, and inserted into the vagina as a suppository to bring about menstruation. In Pliny’s (AD 23 - 79) Natural History, garlic is crushed with fresh coriander and added to wine, and the wine is taken as both a menstruation promoter and an aphrodisiac. In Dioscorides’ (1st or 2nd century AD) Greek Herbal, a garlic clove inserted as a suppository was again noted to “bring down the menses.” Dioscorides also mentions a species of wild garlic on the island of Cypress called ophioscorodon (serpent’s garlic). Boiling the umbel flower of this garlic was good for a sitz bath to help promote menstruation and expulsion of the placenta. For the same purposes it could be used as a smoke fumigation.

Ancient Roman women and men celebrated summer solstice with sexual liberty, and garlic played a part. The summer solstice Cerealia festival was held in honor of Goddess Ceres Legiferer, the lawgiver, who ruled Rome during her matriarchy 600 – 200 BC.[234] The Cerealia was held as a peaceful celebration of the joy of life that Mother Earth Goddess Ceres produced. Ceres, as the earth mother, was the source of all life, all fruit of the land and of the people. Always true, just, and generous with those who kept her rites; her priestesses were known as the foundresses of the Roman legal system.[235] At the time of the Cerealia, the Roman men ate large amounts of the aphrodisiac garlic, which was believed to stimulate the central nerve of the penis, thus contributing to erection.[236] Garlic with coriander seed in wine, as in the emmenagogual recipe by Pliny, was a love potion given by lovers to each other as an aphrodisiac and menstrual promoter.

In ancient Greece, on the night of the full moon, women placed garlic offerings on stone alters at the crossing of three roads in respect to Hecate,[237] Goddess of magic charms and enchantment, who was sometimes called ‘most lovely one,’ a title for the moon.[238] The full moon harmonized with increased sexual desire of ovulation.[239] Hecate was derived from the Egyptian wise-woman midwife, Heqit, who was in charge of the hekau, meaning mother words of power.[240] The three roads of the crossroads were the feminine trinity of life:

heaven, earth, and the underworld. A statue of Hecate with a face pointing in each direction was placed at the crossroads, symbolizing Hecate’s three-fold identity: in the heavens in the form of Hecate Selene (the Moon), on the Earth in the form of Artemis (the birth giver and great huntress), and in the underworld in the form of Persephone (the Destroyer).[241]

Later in history, garlic’s pagan reputation caused much stress and distain among the clergy and politicians, who enacted law and taboos against garlic’s use. A Christian myth says that after Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic arose in his left footprint, and onion in the right.[242]

Garlic continued to be used for menstrual regulation in many cultures. In India, there is evidence of garlic being used in folk medicine as an abortifacient.[243] The hot water decoction of the garlic bulb is used as an emmenagogue.[244] The seeds of garlic are also recorded as being used for emmenagogual purposes.[245] In Jamaica, the hot water decoction of the garlic bulb is also noted as being used as an emmenagogue.[246] Whereas in Mexico, the same garlic preparation is documented as being used for abortifacient purposes.[247]

Modern science supports the ancient writings indicating garlic is effective as an emmenagogual and abortifacient agent. A strong water extract of garlic bulbs produced contractions in a non-pregnant uterus in one study.[248] Sulphur compounds are released when garlic is chopped, crushed, or chewed. Sulphur has an ancient reputation as an abortive fumigant. Sulfur, as a natural anti-clotting agent, causes the blood to flow more readily. Dioscorides prescribed sulfur fumigation to expel a fetus. Recent studies have shown an increased risk of miscarriage in women who are exposed to inhaled sulfide chemicals.[249] Garlic may have spermicidal contraceptive effects as well. Recent scientific studies have shown garlic’s active principle, allitridum, to be highly spermicidal in both animal and human tests.[250]

Gathering: Garlic can be found growing wild in the U.S. from New York to Indiana, and stretching southwest to Missouri. The bulbs of garlic are harvested in late summer before the flowers appear and when the green foliage turns brown. Garlic tops can be braided while green to make an attractive, convenient, strand; or pulled bulbs can be left in the sun for a few days to dry before storing in a cool airy place.