Furniture, games, storage vessels, jewellery, fruit baskets, meat, wine jugs, gold, precious stones, weapons, musical instruments or writing utensils: archaeologists found many astonishing and unspeakably valuable things in the tombs of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs - for the rulers of the empire on the Nile were equipped with many different objects for their journey to the world of the dead.

Which more than surprised the researchers when they took a closer look at many a grave: Because they also found - garlic. The tuber is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world and has been cultivated for over 5000 years. The ancient Egyptians were probably the first to cultivate garlic on a large scale, as it played an important role in their culture and religion. An example: fresh cloves of garlic were peeled on the Nile, crushed and soaked in a mixture of vinegar and water. The brew was used as a rinse against sore throats and toothaches - after all, the pharaohs were not supposed to have sore throats and toothaches on their last journey!

Garlic was also much sought after in the ancient empire for another reason. It was given to the slaves who built the pyramids. The consumption of the healthy tuber increased its endurance and strength and as an energy supplier made the construction of the pyramids as the eighth wonder of the world possible.

The ancient Greeks and Romans also knew garlic as a source of energy. Athletes ate it before competitions, soldiers ate it before battle. And the Roman emperors could not get enough of it - garlic was considered to be an effective antidote to them. Because the risk of dying in a poison attack was not exactly low.

Garlic is even more famous as a weapon against vampires. We know this from the world-famous novel "Dracula" by the English writer Bram Stoker. By the way, Stoker got his idea of keeping vampires from their necks with a garlic chain from the German theologian Johann Christoph Harenberg. In 1733 he had written the book "Reasonable and Christian Thoughts on Vampires", in which he gave the tip with garlic for the first time.

Even though we don't build pyramids anymore, don't fight in the arena and don't go vampire hunting very often: Garlic is still a wonder weapon for our health. When consumed regularly, garlic lowers blood pressure and high blood lipids (cholesterol) and has an anti-inflammatory effect due to the essential oil allicin contained in it. The delicious tuber is also used in the fight against the widespread disease arteriosclerosis and protects against cardiovascular diseases.

But the history of garlic also leads to the Far East. A special kind comes from Japan: the world-famous Aomori garlic. This is subjected to a natural fermentation process in seawater, so that the plant cells are broken down to get at the healthy ingredients of garlic. For the intestine, this opening means hard work - and yet most of it is excreted undigested and thus virtually given away. The bioavailability of all ingredients is particularly high due to seawater fermentation. Bioavailability indicates how quickly and to what extent the substance is absorbed and is available at the site of action.

* This text may contain translation errors as the translation was performed by an online translation tool.