Garlic is probably one of the earliest known medicinal plants (Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, 2003).
Its bulbs (cloves) had been used as a cure-all in ancient Egypt and are mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, one of the earliest treatises on medicinal plants (Wichtl, 2004).
Harris et al. (2001) reported that garlic has been used medicinally since before the time of Sumerian civilization (2600-2100 BC), by when it was already widely cultivated in India and China.
It is used in traditional medicine for treatment of hyperlipemia, hypertension, infectious diseases (Kirtikar and Basu, 1984; Ahsan and Islam, 1996), gastric and hepatic disorders, diabetes, antihelminthic, and antiprotozoal (Shams-Ghahfarokhi et al, 2006).
Garlic is popularly known as “Russian penicillin”, and was of clinical use in treatment of tuberculosis (TB) patients in the early 20th century (Bolton et al, 1982; O’Donnell and Gibbons, 2007).
Garlic and its various preparations may offer simple remedies for ailments from common cough and colds to whooping cough and other pulmonary diseases, skin troubles, gastrointestinal disorders, for averting premature ageing and for improving immunity.
Scientific research has revealed that garlic or its constituents indeed have broad range of biological activities including immune stimulation, anticarcinogenic and antitumour activity besides being natural antibiotics with antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal actions.
Effects of garlic on cardiovascular diseases have been also publicized (Das, 2002).
According to Das (2002) the Egyptians worshiped garlic and the Greek chewed it to get strength. In Asian countries it was recognized for its medicinal properties and also used for flavouring of food.
There have been more than a thousand publications over the past decades about garlic revealing the common interest in garlic and this herbal medicine (Salman et al., 1999; Amagase et al., 2001; Zamani et al., 2009).

Besides its dietary consumption, the use of garlic supplementation for its therapeutic benefits is becoming more and more popular.
Garlic has various biological properties such as antimicrobial (Cellini et al., 1996; Benkeblia and Lanzotti, 2007), anti-inflammatory (Hodge et al., 2002), antithrombotic (Bordia et al., 1996), antihypertensive (Mcmahon and Vargas, 1993), antihyperlipidemic (Yeh and Yeh, 1994), antihperglycemic (Alpers, 2009), antitumor (Thomson and Ali, 2003; Alpers, 2009), antiatherosclerotic (Lee et al., 2011), antidote (for heavy metal poisoning), hepatoprotective and others (Agarwal, 1996; Augusti, 1996; Banerjee et al., 2003).