Home-cooked garlic remains a healthy food

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that garlic has many biological properties due to its phytochemicals. These components include organosulphur compounds (OSCs) such as allicin, which is a chemically unstable metabolite. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether garlic could still be considered a healthy food after home cooking procedures. For that purpose, an experimental design with two factors and three levels was used. Pre-cooking and cooking procedures were the selected factors. Allicin, ajoenes, 2-vinyl-4H-1,3-dithiin (2-VD), diallyl sulphide (DAS), diallyl disulphide (DADS) and diallyl trisulphide (DATS) were the target analytes. Samples were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV). The results showed that it was possible to find OSCs with important biological activities after all pre-cooking and cooking treatments. This is the first study to our knowledge to investigate cooked garlic using an analytical methodology, which avoid artifacts formation.

Keywords

• Garlic
• Cooking treatments
• Bioactive compounds
• Pre-cooking treatments
• OSCs profile