488 LILIAGE2E. 



42-08 per cent, carbohydrates. 



d 4'6l per cent, nitrogen, and 



ALLIUM SATIVUM, Linn^ 



Fig.—BeutL and Trim., 280 ; Woodville, t 256 ; Reich. Ic. Fl. 

 Germ, a-., t 488. Garlic (^^^^7.), Ail {Fr.), 



Hab. — Central Asia. Cultivated throughout India. The 

 bulbs. 



renirtcn/rtr.—Lasau, Lahsau {Rind.), Kasun, Lashun {Beng.), 

 Vallai-pundu [Tarn.], Vellulli [Tel), Belluli {Can.), Lasuna 

 {Mar., Gu%.). 



History, Uses, &C. — Garlic is used as a condiment 

 and medicine by the Hindus. In the Raja Nirglianta it is 

 described under the name of Rasona, and bears many synonyms 

 indicative of its properties, such as Ugra-gandha "strong 

 smelling," Mahanshadha "panacea," Bhuta-ghna " destroying 

 demons," Lasuna, &c. The Hindus consider it to be tonic, hot, 

 digestive, aperient, cholagogue, and alterative ; useful in cough 

 and phlegmatic affections, fever, swellings, gonorrhoea, piles, 

 leprosy, colic, rheumatism, and worms. During its use the 

 diet should consist of wine, meat, and acids. A decoction of 

 garlic in milk is given in small doses in hysteria, flatulence, 

 sciatica, and heart disease. A compound garlic powder called 

 Svalparasona pinda, which contains garlic, asafoetida, cumin, 

 rock salt, sonchal salt, ginger, long pepper, and black pepper 

 in equal proportions, is given in doses of about twenty grains 

 every morning with a decoction of the root of the castor oil 

 plant, m facial paralysis, hemiplegia, sciatica, paraplegia, and 

 convulsive affections. Garlic juice is applied externally as a 

 counter-irritant. As a condiment, the bulbs are largely used in 

 the East. Garhc is the o-K6po8ou of the Greeks and AHium of the 

 Romans, who appear to have used three kinds, A. sativum, Linn., 

 A. okraccam, Linn., and A. ursimim, Linn. It would be tedious 

 to recapitulate aU the medicinal properties ascribed to these 

 plants by the ancients, as they hardly differ from those accorded to 



