ALLIUM
The Lily Family, known for its showy flowers, contains the genus Allium which are mostly noted for their bulbs. The genus includes garlic, chives, onion, leek, shallot, and ramps. All have a strong odor and taste.
The oldest report from Egypt shows that onions were an important food for the pyramid workers around 2800-2300 B.C. The onion spread through Europe with Roman culture and later to the Americas. Our commercial onions are all derived from this source and the wild ancestors are not known.
The leading producer of onion is China where it has long been valued as food and flavoring. The second leading producer is India where they were worshipped in ancient times. In Britain they played a part in Druid rites. The other major producers are the U.S., Russia, Turkey, and Great Britain.
Although rarely used specifically as a medicinal herb, the onion is reported to have a wide range of beneficial actions on the body and when eaten (especially raw:, on a regular basis promotes general health. Its juice is used for stings, bites, wound healing, and as a cosmetic for removing freckles. I know of some people that claim to eat raw onions even for breakfast
Garlic is among the most ancient of cultivated plants and has long been used as food flavoring. It has also been used for its medicinal value and as a germicide. Its juice is now known to contain the antibiotic allicin. It is known in Russia as Russian penicillin. This pungent magical “stink bomb” was used as a healing herb in China and Japan and in northern Europe.
Greeks use it as a diuretic, poison antidote, and as a laxative. Gypsies wore it around their neck to ward off evil spirits. It has been used to prevent gangrene, on bronchitic infections, and tuberculosis. It is said to lower blood cholesterol levels, reduce hypertension, stimulate the digestive system, and enhance the body’s immune defenses. Many other claims have been made about its medicinal value.
In a recent article from Science News, April 19, 1997, page 239, researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York report on a new finding with garlic. “A compound derived from aged garlic dramatically diminishes the growth of human prostate cancer cells, according to data from a new test-tube experiment”. The compound is called allylmercapto-cysteine and is formed as garlic ages. The article describes how the compound works. Commercially marketed aged garlic capsules are available locally as an over the counter product.
Another interesting species of Allium is ramps. These can be found growing in rich woods in Seneca County and I have some in my back yard. Starting about the end of March and most of April, ramp festivals are common throughout Appalachia. Mary and I attended one such festival on a Saturday in early April at my home school in West Virginia. Ramp bulbs are about the size of the end of an index finger. The bulbs along with their broad flat leaves may be added to casseroles and other dishes. They can be added to a green salad. They are mild flavored but they have a strong odor. They have a longer residual effect than garlic. One does not associate with a ramp eater for about three days unless they have also indulged. On a Monday morning at our country school, the weekend ramp eater was immediately ostracized to the back corner of the room. The awful odor emanating from every pore of the body is more profound and longer lasting if raw ramps are eaten. Mary refuses to cook or serve me any ramps.
Ramps have most of the medicinal value of garlic. Leaves have been used in the treatment of colds and croup, and also as a spring tonic. Earaches were treated by the warm juice from the entire plant, and strong doses are used to cause vomiting.
The Allium as a group are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free. They contain 85-90 X water, up to 10X carbohydrate, up to 2% protein and some vitamin content, particularly vitamin C. Research continues about their medicinal properties.
--Percy