Garlic (redirected from Stinking rose)

garlic: see onion.

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garlic

Bulbous perennial plant (Allium sativum) of the lily family, native to central Asia and growing wild in Italy and southern France. The bulbs are used as a flavouring. A classic ingredient in many national cuisines, garlic has a powerful onionlike aroma and pungent taste; its wide use in the U.S. originated among European immigrant groups. Since ancient and medieval times it has been prized for its medicinal properties; it was formerly carried as a charm against vampires and other evils. Garlic bulbs are used sliced or crushed to flavour sauces, stews, and salad dressings. The membranous skin of the garlic bulb encloses up to 20 edible bulblets called cloves. See also allium.

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garlic

1. a hardy widely cultivated Asian alliaceous plant, Allium sativum, having a stem bearing whitish flowers and bulbils

2. any of various other plants of the genus Allium

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garlic [′gär·lik]

(botany)

Allium sativum.A perennial plant of the order Liliales grown for its pungent, edible bulbs.

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Garlic 

(Allium sativum), a bulbous plant of the family Liliaceae. The erect or drooping leaves are flat, lanceolate, and grooved. The flower stalk, which is developed and straight, measures 60–150 cm in height. The bulb is compound and consists of two to 50 cloves, each of which is covered with a coarse, leathery scale.

Garlic grows wild in the mountains of Middle Asia, southern Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, India, and the Mediterranean region. It is cultivated in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and tropical Africa and Australia. In the USSR garlic is almost ubiquitous.

Cultivated garlic has bolting and common, or nonbolting, forms. There is an intermediate form with attenuated bolting. Garlic is classified as spring or winter, according to the method of cultivation. Spring garlic has narrow leaves and does not usually bolt; winter garlic has broad leaves and may be bolting or non-bolting. Winter garlic gives considerably higher yields than spring garlic but is not suitable for prolonged storage. Spring garlic can be preserved until the next harvest. In contrast to wild garlic, cultivated garlic does not yield seeds but forms 60 to 450 aerial bulbels in the inflorescence and approximately the same number of flower buds, which wither before they open. If the bulbel is not used for propagation, the flower stalks are broken off soon after they appear from the axil of the last leaf, increasing the harvest of underground bulbs by 20 to 40 percent.

Garlic is used in cooking in fresh and preserved form. The bulbs contain 35–42 percent dry matter, 6.0–7.9 percent protein substances, 7.0 to 28 mg percent vitamin C (the leaves contain up to 80 mg percent), 0.5 percent sugars, and 20–27 percent polysaccharides. The pungent flavor and distinctive odor of garlic are caused by the presence of essential oil (0.23–0.74 percent) containing phytoncides that kill the causative agents of many diseases.

Phytoncidal preparations of garlic bulbs—garlic tincture and allilsat (a 40-percent alcoholic garlic extract)—are used medicinally to intensify the motor and secretory functions of the gastrointestinal tract. They are prescribed internally to suppress the processes of putrefaction and fermentation in the intestine in cases of atonia of the intestine and in colitis, as well as in cases of hypertension and atherosclerosis.

About 20 selectively bred varieties have been regionalized in the USSR. Cultivated garlic is propagated by cloves of root bulbs or by aerial bulbels. In the first year single-cloved bulbs are grown from the bulbels; the next year bulbs divided into cloves appear. Spring garlic is set out in early spring; winter garlic is planted in time to take root before prolonged frosts. About 400,000 cloves are set out per hectare (500–2500 kg/ha). Plantings consist of single-, double-, or triple-row strips, with 20 or 40 cm between rows. Where there is excessive moisture, garlic is grown on ridges or in beds. The average yield is 50–80 quintals per ha. The most dangerous pest of garlic is the stem eelworm (Ditylenchus dipsaci).

REFERENCES

Kuznetsov, A. V. Chesnok kul’turnyi. Moscow, 1954.
Alekseeva, M. V. Kul’turnye luki. Moscow, 1960.
Kazakova, A. A. Luk. Leningrad, 1970.

IU. V. ABRAKHINA