The Herbarium
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Garlic botanical plate

Herb. No. 010 · Amaryllidaceae

RangeFig. atlas
Approximate native range — a teaching atlas, not a survey

Wild origin in Central Asia; a food crop almost everywhere soil can freeze in winter.

Native · Central Asia

Native Also grownNow a garden plant worldwide
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Garlic

Allium sativum

Medicinal herbsKitchenHarvestCompanionsLookalikes

The original kitchen antimicrobial — crushed raw for punch, roasted for daily food medicine.

Allicin forms when alliin meets the enzyme alliinase — that is why garlic must be crushed and left to sit. Traditional uses span infection, blood pressure, and parasites. Aged extracts and raw clove are different medicines. Breath is not a side effect; it is a biomarker.

Flavor

Pungent allium heat that sweetens when roasted.

Parts used

Bulb

Helpful

  • Food-as-medicine
  • Cheap, studied, growable in a raised bed

Cautions

  • Heartburn, odor, rare allergy
  • Increases bleeding tendency at high dose
  • Burns skin if a raw poultice is left on

Do not confuse

Field assistant

Ask about traditional use, safety, or the law. The assistant will not teach illegal cultivation or give medical orders.

Related symptoms

coldhigh blood pressurelow immunityfungal skin

Teas with this plant

Remedies with this plant

  • First-scratch cold tray

    Elderberry: follow the jar; typically 1 tsp cooked syrup, 2–3 times, 2–3 days. Ginger: one 8–12 oz cup, 2–3 times. Garlic: 1 crushed culinary clove in food, once or twice. Yarrow: one 8 oz cup, once.

  • Winter mushroom pot

    Adult: one 8–12 oz mug of the strained decoction, 3–5 days a week in winter, or a weekly pot used over two days. Culinary garlic in the same soup.

  • Hawthorn hedgerow

    Adult: 1 tsp dried berry per 8 oz, once daily, with food. Garlic: food cloves. Olive leaf: 1–2 tsp dried, not a concentrated extract unless labeled.

  • Garlic in honey

    Adult: 1 culinary clove in honey, 1–2 times a day, 2–3 days. Honey not for infants under 1 year.

  • Onion-and-honey spoon

    Adult: 1 tsp of the collected syrup, 2–3 times a day, 2–3 days. Not for infants (honey).

Harvest this plant

When to cut, how to dry, and how to store it — garden and kitchen crops only.

Open harvest notes

Companion planting

20 to plant with · 3 to keep apart.

Open companion beds

Lookalikes

1 named mix-up for this plate.

Open lookalikes