Onion, Garlic, Leek: Horticulture

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Onion, Garlic, Leek Horticulture and Human
Health Irwin Goldman University of
Wisconsin-Madison
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Garden of Eden
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Plant-Based Folklore

• Rice deters demons affecting fertility of the
  newlyweds
• Tomato was used to treat eye diseases
• Seeds from Apiaceae species were used to derive
  medicines
• Alliums were used for infections and to improve
  circulation

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Coincidence?
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Monomolecular Drugs
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Functional Foods?
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Functional Foods

• Similar in appearance to conventional food
• Demonstrated physiological benefit beyond
  nutritional value
• Example antioxidant function of carotenoids,
  beyond Vitamin A nutrition
• Therefore, the molecule is multi-functional

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Dysfunctional Foods?
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Snake Oil Steady Work for Over One Century
Harpers Bazaar, 1898
Harpers Bazaar, 1998
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Let your food be your medicine and your medicine
be your food -Hippocrates
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• Egyptian use of Alliums for heart ailments
• Olympic athletes use Alliums for circulation
• Blood clots in horses treated with onion and
  garlic

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Are Alliums functional foods?
?
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Defense Compounds

• Sulfur stored as ACSOs
• Tissue disruption initiates lysis of ACSOs
• Causing formation of thiosulfinates, other OSCs
• Organosulfur compounds deter many pests

Sulfate
ACSOs
Alliinase
Thiosulfinates
Pest resistance
Fenwick and Hanley, 1986
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Chemical Composition of Garlic
mg/g FW
Water 620-680 Carbohydrates 260-300 Fiber
15 Protein 15-21 Amino Acids
10-15 OSCs 11-35 Vitamins 0.15 Minerals
7 Sulfur 2.3-3.7 Nitrogen
6-13 Lipids 1-2 Adenosine 0.1
ACSOs 6-19 g-Glut.Cyst. 5-16
Unique Featues High OSC content Low moisture
(65) High fructans (65 of DW) High AA,
arginine High S content High Se content
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Chemical Composition of Garlic
Presence of Principal OSCs in Garlic
---------mg/g FW------- Whole
Crushed ACSOs 6-17 0 g-GACs 5-15 5-15 Thi
osulfinates 0 3-5
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Cell
bundle sheath cells
Cytoplasm, mesophyll storage cells
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Distribution of Flavor Precursors
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Garlic Sulfur Compound Transformation-Redrawn
from Lawson, 1998
Whole
? Glutamyl-S-allylcysteine Alliin Cycloalliin ?
Glutamyl-S-t-1-propenlcysteine Methiin
No change
Crushed

Alliinase
Sulfenic Acids Allicin Allyl
methanethiosulfinate Pyruvic Acid
Processed
Transpeptidase
aqueous steam distillation
oil or solvent incubation
S-Allylcysteine Diallyl trisulfide 2-Vinyl-4H-1
,3-dithiin S-1-Propenylcysteine Diallyl
disulfide 2-Vinyl-4H-1,2-dithiin Glutamic
acid Allyl methyl trisulfide E-Ajoene Allyl
methyl disulfide
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Flavor and Medicine

• Thiosulfinates confer flavor to food
• Also mask other flavors
• Exhibit a range of unique bioactivities
• Including many of interest to human health

Sulfate
ACSOs
Alliinase
Thiosulfinates
Flavor, Medicine
Block, 1985, Lawson, 1998
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Domestication

• Cluster
• Perennial
• Flower
• each year

• Bulb onion progenitor unknown
• Perennial growth habit
• Selection pressure for apically-dominant bulb
• Large single bulb, biennial cycle

• Single
• Apical
• dominance
• Biennial

Brewster, 1994
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History of Alliums as Medicine

• Recorded by Sumerians and in India
• Inscribed on Great Pyramid of Cheops
• Discussed in Codex Ebers, 1550 B.C.E.
• Eaten by pyramid builders
• Described in China by 500 C.E.
• Incorporated into Ayurvedic medicine by 500 C.E.
• Hippocrates recommended as remedy, 400 B.C.E.
• Dioscorides suggested medicinal properties

Source Lawson, 1998 Hahn, 1996
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History of Alliums as Medicine

• St. Hildegard of Bingen, 1150
• Suggested as cure for plague of London, 1665
• Sydenham used to cure smallpox, 1650s
• Used to cure cholera in Europe, 1850s
• Pasteur showed antibacterial effect in 1858
• Schweitzer used to cure typhoid in Africa
• Used in WW I in Europe to treat wounds
• Russian Penicillin from use during WW II

Source Lawson, 1998 Hahn, 1996
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Greeks and Romans

• A garlic breakfast will make you hotter for
  fighting (Aristophanes)
• Our fathers and great-grandfathers were rather
  courageous men, though their words had a crude
  odor of garlic and onions. (Varro)
• If you evershould partake of this plant, then
  may your beloved resist your kiss and remain far
  from your hugs and flee to the lowest couch.
  (Horatius)

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Greeks and Romans

• Pliny the elder (23-79 C.E.) commented that
  exposure turns Allium leaves black
• Concluded the plant attracts evil
• Romans believed snakebite transferred evil demons
  
• Connection made with treating evil
• Pompeiian ruins demonstrate painting of garlic on
  walls to deter evil

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Spread to Europe

• Romans brought Alliums to Celts, Germans
• Benedictine Monks helped to distribute Alliums
• Met with mixed results in England
• Much beloved in Spain
• Balkans enjoyed, Northern Europeans disliked
• Used as curative for plague
• In 1721, looters in Marseille used garlic to stay
  alive
• Vinaigre des quatres voleurs!

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Protection from Evil Spirits

• Many cultures still use Alliums as protection
  from demons
• Royalty in France annointed with garlic oil to
  repel evil spirits
• Farm animals and crops protected with Alliums
• Used to disinfect areas after death to prevent
  haunting by the human spirit
• Connection with vampire lore

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Goldman, World Vegetables
Alliums and Human Well-Being
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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Lipid Lowering
• Most thoroughly studied
• Placebo-controlled, dose-consistent
• 4-30 decrease in cholesterol and triglycerides
  over 3-8 week feeding period
• Highest reduction with fresh cloves
• Meta-analyses reveal 9-12 reduction with 0.5-1
  clove per day
• Equivalent reduction to bezafibrate in Germany
• Mechanism is increased triglyceride catabolism

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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Antithrombotic
• Reduction in platelet aggregation
• In vitro and in vivo studies suggest
  thiosulfinates
• Intake reduces thromboxane
• Thiosulfinate-derived oils also active in vitro
• Very striking effect of fibrinolysis with intake
• Increases in clotting time and flow rate
• Also thiosulfinate-determined
• Surgeons warning to patients

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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Blood Pressure
• Placebo-controlled studies
• Reductions of up to 7 over 6 months
• Meta-analysis useful in hypertension
• Not due to thiosulfinates
• May be associated with fructans and adenosine
• Mechanism may be stimulation of NO synthetase

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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Anticancer
• Significant epidemiological data from 6 countries
• 79 of studies show protective effect for GI
  cancer
• Similar percentage for green veg. and Brassicas
• Shangdong Province study and stomach cancer
• Thiosulfinates kill nitrate-reducing bacteria
• Iowa Womens Health Study colon cancer risk
• Thiosulfinates and other compounds responsible
• Sulfides studied extensively
• Benefits conferred even with cooked Alliums

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Flavonoids in Alliums

• Quercitin at high concentration in onion
  (280-480 mg/kg)
• Hertog et al., Lancet, 342, 1993
• Unique and abundant in red onion
• Fossen et al., Phytochem., 47, 1998
• Variability among accessions
• Patil et al., 1995
• Reduce carcinogen activity
• Leighton et al., 1992
• Inhibit tumorigenesis
• Leighton et al., 1992
• Function as antioxidants
• Arai et al., Lipids, 30, 1995

Quercitin and derivatives
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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Antioxidant
• Decreases in lipid peroxidation
• Increased free radical scavenging
• Increases in glutathione
• Thiosulfinates can be pro-oxidants in vitro
• Appear to be antioxidants in vivo
• Mostly due to thiosulfinates
• Other compounds active at very high doses

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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Antimicrobial
• Perhaps longest-known medicinal effect
• Effective against gram Positive and Gram negative
• More effective against human pathogenic bacteria
• No bacterial resistance reported to
  thiosulfinates
• Due to thiosulfinates and to oils
• Thiosulfinates react with SH groups of cysteine

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Functional Properties of Alliums

• Boosting Immune Function
• Immune system stimulation with Allium intake
• Increased lymphocytes, antibody production
• Antidiabetic
• Reduce blood glucose, increase insulin
• 4 week intake, reductions of 13
• Antiaging
• Studies with senescence-accelerated mice

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Toxicological / Negative Effects

• Anemia in animals
• Abdominal hemorrhage
• Internal bleeding in animals?
• Acid reflux and heartburn
• Erratic opening of stomach-esophagus valve
• Blockage of COX and LIPOX in Arachidonic acid
  met.
• LF, reduction by NADPH in nerve cell membrane
• Breath OSCs in blood to lungs

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Cardiovascular Health
Lipid lowering Blood pressure lowering Antioxidant
Antithrombotic or Antiplatelet
AHA, 2000
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Cardiovascular Health
Healthy coronary artery
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Plaque in coronary artery
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Platelets in coronary artery
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Platelet aggregate in coronary artery
...Heart attack and stroke
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Aggregating Platelets

• A major cause of heart attack and stroke
• Approximately 25 of US public has some form of
  cardiovascular disease
• Preventive measures aspirin
• Preventive measures diet?
• Preventive measures onion?

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Collaborative Effort

• Medicine John Folts, Cardiology
• Medicine Bradford Schwartz, Hematology
• Food Science Kirk Parkin, Chemistry
• Horticulture Mike Havey, Genetics
• Horticulture Irwin Goldman, Plant Biology

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Whole Blood Aggregometry
Electrical wires
Cuvette Blood
Saline Collagen
As platelets aggregate after collagen is added,
resistance is measured across wires
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CorrelationsPhenotypic / GeneticFrom F3
families derived from BYG x Ailsa Craig
crossTraits measured at 90 days postharvest
Goldman et al., 1996
Galmarini and Havey, 2000
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S FertilityGreenhouse-grown onion, 4 accessions
Orvis, 1997
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S FertilityField-grown onion, 4 accessions
Orvis, 1997
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Postharvest

• Bulb storage for long periods common
• Certain genotypes show OIAA increases
• All generally increase from 0-90 days

Debaene, 1999
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Life Cycle
Umbel Flower Stalk
Leaves Bulb
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Life Cycle

• Bulb, no inhibition
• Scape, no inhibition
• Umbel inhibits
• Sprout inhibits

Pro
Anti
0 10 12 14 16
18 20 Weeks
postharvest
Briggs, 2000
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Life Cycle
Umbel Flower Stalk
Leaves Bulb
ACSO cycling Lancaster et al., 1986
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You are what you eat -mom You are what you
dont excrete -modern medical science
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Cooking

• gt1 minute of boiling eliminates all in vitro OIAA
• Suggests volatility of OSCs, heat-killing of
  alliinase

Kopelberg and Goldman, 1995
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Fresh vs. Cooked Bunching Onion

• Chen et al. (2000) reduction in platelet
  aggregation with feeding of Welsh onion juice
• Rats fed 28 days
• Boiled Welsh onion juice had no effect, and in
  some cases promoted aggregation

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Pungency Paradox

• More pungent more efficacy
• More pungent more difficult to eat raw
• But cooking eliminates OIAA
• So the best onion is the weakest onion

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More Potent than Aspirin in Vitro
Impedance (ohms)
Briggs, 2000
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Folts in vivo Coronary Thrombosis Model
Canine
Measure blood flow through constricted coronary
artery
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Onion Inhibits Platelet Aggregation in vivo
A dosage of 1cc juice given intravenously
inhibited CFRs within 5 minutes
EKG -
Aortic BP -
CCA Flow -
X
X
1cc onion juice
Also inhibited intragastrically at 2 g/kg
Briggs, 2000
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• French Paradox
• 1991 piece on CBS 60 Minutes
• French eat up to 15 of calories from saturated
  fat, yet 40 lower incidence of heart disease
  than U.S.
• Has been explained by French wine consumption,
  among other things

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Spawned herbal supplements containing grape seed
/ grape skin extracts Reflects magic bullet
approach to health
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