Garlic added to baby formula packaging could be the key to preventing contamination from a potentially lethal toxin traced to powdered formula manufacturing and handling, a University of B.C. study shows.
While babies can’t be fed garlic, packaging could encapsulate the beneficial sulphuric compounds in garlic, which might also be used to improve hygiene in the pipes where formula is made, says Xiaonan Lu, the UBC co-author/assistant professor who heads a food safety engineering research lab.
For thousands of years, the benefits of garlic have been touted — to reduce blood clotting, heart disease and even prevent cancer, Lu said. But the chemistry to explain how the compounds in garlic achieve that have, until recently, eluded scientists.
In the current study, published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a research team from China, Washington state and UBC used sophisticated equipment to show how the tiniest dose of the eye-watering sulphuric compounds in garlic — diallyl sulphide and ajoene — killed a pathogen called Cronobacter sakazakii (C. sakazakii), which has been implicated in numerous outbreaks of illness (meningitis and bloodstream infections) in formula-fed babies around the world.
The World Health Organization did an 87-page report in 2008 on the issue of bacterial pathogens in formula, after several outbreaks. It found the lack of a mandatory tracking system meant there was no way to measure case numbers of C. sakazakii accurately. However, the WHO report documented 120 cases it did know about in infants and children up to age three.
It identified potential problems in the formula manufacturing process and also hygiene hazards when the powdered formula is prepared by home or hospital caregivers in less than the most sterile conditions.
Lu came to UBC from Washington State University last year after doing doctoral training and research there, some of it on the properties of garlic.
“Garlic is a plant that is very popular in China, where I come from, and lots of people are fascinated with its anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory effects,” he said in an interview.
“The beneficial sulphuric compounds are what cause your eyes to water when you’re chopping raw garlic, just like in onions,” he said.
While cooking destroys some of the compounds in garlic that have medicinal effects, the pair of compounds in the current study remain active even after being heated. Lu said he is seeking research funding for work on garlic compounds in the cancer treatment arena.
Last week, a new study showed that eating raw garlic twice a week may cut the risk of lung cancer by almost half.
The results were published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. The study showed that those who consumed raw garlic at least twice a week had a 44-per- cent lower risk of lung cancer, even if they were exposed to cooking-oil fumes. Garlic also reduced the risk of lung cancer in smokers by 30 per cent, according to the study done by scientists at the Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in China.
Their findings were based on face-to-face interviews with 1,424 lung cancer patients and 4,500 healthy controls over a period from 2003 to 2010.
Many health benefits of garlic are attributed to a compound called allicin, which has been touted as a new agent against superbugs like MRSA and VRE. But allicin is a volatile compound, destroyed when garlic is cooked in oil.
Sun Health Issues Reporter