According to urban legend, while garlic oil is harmless when consumed, it’s lethal if it gets into your bloodstream. Supposedly, this is why mafiosi used to coat their bullets in garlic oil–so if the shot was off center and hit your shoulder or something it would kill you anyway. I was wondering if you could explain the truth (or lack thereof) or devise some sort of scientific/pseudoscientific experiment so that I and others like me can rest easier at night. –David Bowles, via e-mail
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You might think the only parties that need to fear garlic are (a) people stuck in an elevator with somebody who just had a big Italian meal and (b) the undead. Not so. Scientific experiments (and where do you get off insinuating we truck with any other kind?) indisputably prove: garlic kills. Granted, what it mainly kills are lab rats and mice, a fact usually conceded when discussing what a boon to humanity Allium sativum, as the eggheads call it, has otherwise proven to be. Still, I figure the public has a right to know.
A more serious issue is that, though listed as “generally recognized as safe” by federal regulators, in large enough doses garlic is poisonous. The potentially toxic ingredients are largely the same ones that give garlic its culinary and therapeutic benefits, namely sulfur-containing compounds formed as a natural defense mechanism when the garlic plant is chopped or crushed. The one often touted by garlic enthusiasts is allicin, but be skeptical if anybody tries to sell you some–allicin breaks down quickly and most commercial garlic preparations don’t contain any. The chemicals of interest are allicin derivatives.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
