Freshly crushed garlic is a superior cardioprotective agent than processed garlic

In this study, we compared the cardioprotective effects of freshly crushed garlic vis-a-vis that of processed garlic. Two groups of rats were gavaged with respective garlic preparations while the control group received vehicle only. After 30 days, all of the rats were sacrificed and isolated the hearts were subjected to 30 min ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion. Both of the garlic preparations provided cardioprotection, but superior cardiac performance was noticed for those fed with freshly crushed garlic. Consistent with these results, the freshly crushed garlic group displayed significantly greater phosphorylation of antiapoptotic ERK1/2 proteins, reduced Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, and reduced phosphorylation of proapoptotic p-38MAPK and JNK. Moreover, the survival signaling network consisting of Akt-FoxO1 was increased in the freshly crushed garlic treated hearts. Freshly crushed garlic, but not the processed garlic, showed enhanced redox signaling as evident by increased level of p65 subunit of NFkappaB, Nrf2, and enhanced GLUT 4, PPARalpha, and PPARdelta. The results thus show that although both freshly crushed garlic and processed garlic provide cardioprotection, the former has additional cardioprotective properties presumably due to the presence of H2S.