Wild garlic, one of the best healers for the body, is also known in folk medicine as garlic, bear garlic, or forest garlic.
It is a plant that grows spontaneously in wild areas. It appears in March-April. The leaves are harvested before the plant flowers, when it contains the maximum amount of active principles.
Be very careful if you pick it yourself, as it resembles the leaves of lily of the valley, which are toxic. Wild garlic leaves have a garlic smell and flowers like those in the image.
Related to onions and garlic, wild garlic has much stronger healing properties that deserve to be known and fully exploited. It is a greenery that is quite inexpensive to consume more often.
Dr. researcher Virginia Ciocan describes it in one of her writings, placing it alongside plants with immune and adaptogenic effects. The Dacians who lived in our territory knew the healing power of this plant and used it both as food and as a natural medicine.
The Greek physician Dioscorides used wild garlic over 2 millennia ago as a natural detoxifier for cleansing the blood, lungs, and digestive tract.
The benefits of consuming wild garlic are mainly due to its purifying and immune-stimulating actions.
Studies conducted by German researchers on the chemical composition of wild garlic have shown that it contains substances with effects:
purifying, diuretic, laxative, vermifuge
anti-anemic
immune-stimulating
antiviral
antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic
bronchodilating
expectorant, antitussive
anti-cholesterol
anticoagulant
vasodilating
anti-sclerotic
hypotensive
hemostatic
anti-tumor
anti-inflammatory
anti-toxic
calming on the nervous system
anti-aging
anti-inflammatory
This impressive list of properties tells us a lot about the effectiveness of wild garlic in combating a variety of diseases:
gastrointestinal diseases
constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, dysentery, abdominal colic, bloating, intestinal worms, roundworms, biliary insufficiency
cardiovascular conditions
high blood pressure, coronary atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, cardiac ischemia, stroke, thrombosis, thrombophlebitis
respiratory conditions
bronchitis, flu, cold, pulmonary tuberculosis, upper respiratory infections
nervous system conditions
memory problems, lapses, amnesia, insomnia, morning sickness, mental depression, anxiety, fear, restlessness
kidney diseases
detoxification of the kidneys and bladder, elimination of excess uric acid, hematuria
gout, painful joints, arthritis, rheumatism
How to consume wild garlic
Professor Dr. Constantin Milic recommends everyone to have a cure with fresh wild garlic leaves every spring, lasting 3-4 weeks. For blood purification, Dr. Milic recommends a salad of raw vegetables containing wild garlic, for 2-3 weeks.
This spring plant has a taste similar to garlic but does not produce unpleasant breath. It can be added especially in salads, in soups and broths, purees (along with nettles), meatballs, pastries or dumplings, stews, pesto.
It is mainly used in spring salads, along with other seasonal greens, such as lettuce, nettles, spinach, sorrel, parsley.
After being picked or bought from the market, it should be placed in plastic bags and stored in the refrigerator. It lasts about a week.
It can also be prepared in the form of infusion (2 tablespoons of leaves in 200 ml of water), tincture, or wine (a handful of boiled leaves in 50 ml of wine, sweetened with honey).
Wild garlic may cause problems for people with stomach issues and for women who are breastfeeding.
