Garlic fights fungus

Sometimes what the media like to describe as a “wonder drug” is no more than an old wife’s cure. Garlic is an odorous bulb
of a lily plant, Allium sativum, has proven antibacterial properties that can be also used effectively as a fungicide. During
the 1980’s, Professor Sydney Cywes, head of paediatric surgery at Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital, began to use
garlic extract to treat babies who had become infected with candida (thrush) and failed to respond clinically to conventional antifungal therapy. The aqueous extract was prepared by Peter de Wet, a research technologist at the hospital. An intact
garlic bulb contains a chemical that reacts with an enzyme to form allicin when the tissue of the bulb is crushed, giving
garlic its characteristic smell.

The aqueous extract was used as treatment for fungal and bacterial infections at various hospitals in addition to full
conventional antibiotic therapy. The treatment started at the Red Cross hospital, later spread to other hospitals.
The research is now being carried out by Professor Heiz Rode and De Wet since Cywes passed away. Scientific
advances are built on these kinds of hypothesis.

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