6 Surprising Ways Garlic Boosts Your Health

6 Surprising Ways Garlic Boosts Your Health :

6 Surprising Ways Garlic Boosts Your Health

Garlic. Roasted in olive oil, it can melt in your mouth like butter, while chopped and raw, it can taste pungent and sharp. Either way, this herb-like vegetable offers significant benefits — on the inside and out.

It’s the organic sulfur compound allicin in garlic that gives it its pungent smell and makes it a healthy addition to your diet.

What garlic can do for you :

1. Boost immunity:
In test tubes, garlic appears to kill cancer cells, and studies involving people show some of the same outcomes. According to the Iowa Women’s Health Study, involving 41,000 middle-aged women, those who routinely ate garlic, fruits and vegetables had a 35 percent lower colon cancer risk. Benefits came from raw and cooked garlic – not supplements.

2. Work as an anti-inflammatory:
 Research has shown that garlic oil works as an anti-inflammatory. So, if you have sore and inflamed joints or muscles, rub them with the oil.

3. Improve cardiovascular health:
The verdict is still out on whether garlic improves your cholesterol levels, but research does indicate it can have a positive impact on your arteries and blood pressure.

Investigators believe red blood cells turn the sulfur in garlic into hydrogen sulfide gas that expands our blood vessels, making it easier to regulate blood pressure.

The German Commission E, similar to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, recommends 4 grams of garlic daily – the size of one large clove – to reduce your risk of heart disease.

4. Give you better hair & skin: 
Garlic’s antioxidants and antibacterial properties can clear up your skin by killing acne-causing bacteria. Some data shows rubbing raw garlic over pimples can clear them away. Be aware, though, that it could cause a burning sensation on your skin.

5. Protect your food: 
Those same antibacterial properties in fresh garlic can kill the bacteria that lead to food poisoning, including salmonella and E.coli. Don’t use garlic as a substitute for proper food sanitation and food handling, though.

6. Treat athlete’s foot: 
Garlic also fights fungus. If you have athlete’s foot, soak your feet in garlic water or rub raw garlic on your feet to attack the itch-causing fungus.

6 Surprising Ways Garlic Boosts Your Health

Maximize the garlic :

While you can steep chopped garlic in hot water to make tea, covering the taste with honey, taking advantage of garlic’s benefits is a little complicated. Heating it or putting it in a recipe can change its pH balance. The enzymes from the allicin need a few minutes to start working, so let it sit after you mince, crush or chop it.

You’ll get the most benefit from raw garlic. But if you choose to cook it, don’t heat it above 140°F. Higher temperatures kill the allicin, so add garlic to your recipes when you’re almost done cooking.

A few words of caution :

Garlic’s health benefits are plenty, but don’t add too much to your diet too quickly. Overdoing it can cause discomfort, including upset stomach, bloating, diarrhea, bad breath and body odor.

You may also get a stinging feeling on the skin if you handle significant amounts of fresh and dried garlic. To avoid garlic-induced skin lesions, wear kitchen gloves.

On rare occasions, garlic supplements can cause headaches, fatigue, appetite loss, muscle aches, dizziness and allergic reactions such as asthma attacks or skin rashes.

If you take blood thinners, taking a garlic supplement can increase the medication’s effect, making it even harder for your blood to clot.

The role of mesenchymal stem cells in haemopoiesis

Haemopoiesis: How Blood is Created |Easyandcreativebiology.blogspot.com


Figure : Stages in the homing and

mobilization of stem cells.

It may seem obvious, but blood is made from many things. Blood plasma, for instance, is mostly made of water, carrying proteins and cells along with various chemicals diluted within the plasma or bound to proteins. For instance, sodium bicarbonate – baking soda – is, in fact, a vital chemical that our bodies use to maintain a healthy level of blood acidity.

Other than the plasma, there are the “formed elements” of the blood: the red and white blood cells along with the clot-causing platelets. These are created mostly in the bone marrow when we are adults, and they circulate for a while before being broken down and recycled in the spleen.

Where does blood come from?


Figure : Hierarchical organization of haemopoiesis.

Within the bone marrow, there are ‘haematopoietic’ (blood-making) stem cells. These are generally long-term hematopoietic stem cells, but each of them can leave the bone marrow and change its gene expression before dividing to form one short-term hematopoietic stem cell and one long-term one, which is returned to the bone marrow, keeping the number of long-term cells constant.

Various hormones in the blood can then interact with the short-term hematopoietic stem cells, causing it to form either a common myeloid progenitor cell, which makes most blood cells, or a common lymphoid progenitor cell, which makes most immune cells, depending on the hormones that the cell detects.

At this point, the two types of cells can change (differentiate) into all of the blood cells in the circulatory system, depending on what further hormonal ‘instructions’ they are given.

Stem cell loss :


Figure : Stages in haemopoietic cell development.

The loss of stem cells is a hallmark of aging. The number of hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow decreases with age, as does their activity. This makes the formation of new blood and immune cells more difficult, decreasing the body’s ability to fight disease or recover from blood loss.

The reduced amount of blood cells also reduces the amount of oxygen that the body can take in, causing shortness of breath and making exercise difficult. Perhaps to compensate for this, the percentage of haematopoietic stem cells which are focused on creating red blood cells increases in comparison to the amount of immune cell-making stem cells [1]. This reduces the number of hematopoietic stem cells focused on maintaining the immune system, leading to the immune system

weakening. This prevents the repair of other forms of damage and allows opportunistic infections to appear in the body, leading to illness, disease and discomfort. All of this contributes to the growing frailty and disability that is associated with old age.

A possible solution :


Figure : Transcription factors involved in lineage selection by haemopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

Recently, researchers have succeeded in producing new hematopoietic stem cells from a population of common myeloid and lymphoid progenitor cells through chemicals known as Yamanaka factors, which induce pluripotence [2]. This allows cells descended from hematopoietic stem cells to become hematopoietic stem cells again.

This makes it a plausible approach to take cells from a patient, turn them into hematopoietic stem cells, and then return them. This might be a possible solution to replenishing the dwindling pool of hematopoietic stem cells and avoiding the age-related diseases associated with stem cell depletion.

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Transpiration and Structure of Stomata: 

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Transpiration is the process in which plants release the water inside it in the form of moisture or water vapor. Roots consume some amount of water from the soil and the rest evaporates in the atmosphere. Parts of plants such as stems, small pores on leaves, and flowers evaporate the water to the atmosphere. In other words, it is the process in which water evaporates in the atmosphere from plant leaves and other parts.  Let us study more about it.

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Types of Transpiration:

Depending on the organ that performs transpiration, the different types are:

Stomatal transpiration: It is the evaporation of water through stomata. Stomata are specialized pores in the leaves. They account for around 80 to 90% of the total water loss from the plants.

Cuticular transpiration: Cuticle is an impermeable covering present on the leaves and stem. It causes around 20% of transpiration in plants. Cuticular transpiration is lesser in xerophytes because they have thicker cuticles.

Lenticular Transpiration: It is the evaporation of water through lenticels. Lenticels are the tiny openings present on the woody bark.

Leaves absorb visible and invisible radiations of the sun. And so, get heated up. As a result, water vaporizes and is given out in the atmosphere. This, in turn, brings down the temperature of the leaves. The opening and closing of stomata regulate transpiration.

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Structure of Stomata:

Stomata are the tiny pores present in the epidermal surface of leaves. Two kidney-shaped cells known as guard cells, guard the pores. The inner wall of the guard cell towards the stomata is thicker as compared to the outer walls. Also, the peculiar arrangement of the microfibrils of the guard cells aids in opening and closing of the stomatal aperture.

The orientation of microfibrils is radial rather than longitudinal. This helps stomata to open easily. In a dorsiventral dicotyledonous leaf, the number of stomata on the lower surface is higher when compared to the upper surface. This adaptation helps in reducing the evaporation of water. In isobilateral leaf in a monocotyledonous plant, the number of stomata is equal on both the surfaces.

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Factors affecting Transpiration:

Transpiration rate depends on various factors such as:

1)Environmental factors like

2)temperature

3)relative humidity

4)wind speed etc.

5)Plant factors like

6)the number and distribution of stomata.

7)Percentage of open stomata.

8)Water status of the plant.

9)The structure of canopy of the tree.

Transpiration - Definition, Process, Types, Structure of Stomata - Easy and Creative Biology

Mechanism of Stomatal Movement:

The factors which affect stomatal movement are-

1)Amount of light

2)The concentration of carbon dioxide

3)Water supply

4)The opening and closing of stomata operate as a result of turgidity changes in the guard cells. During the daytime, the guard cells perform photosynthesis due to which osmotic pressure increases. Thus, the guard cells absorb water from the neighboring cells. As a result, the guard cells become turgid.  Furthermore, the outer thin walls of guard cells are pushed out and the inner thicker walls are pulled inwards resulting in stomata to open. During the night time or in a condition of water scarcity or dry areas, guard cells are in a flaccid state and remain closed.

Ascent of Sap :

Transpiration is the essential driving force for the ascent of sap (rising of water in the tall trees through xylem vessels). The ascent of sap depends upon the following 

physical properties of water:

Cohesion-It is the attraction between water molecules.

Adhesion– The water molecules get attached to the surface of the tracheary elements of xylem.

Surface tension– The ability of water surface to behave like a stretched membrane. 

These properties give water high tensile strength and high capillarity. Because of this, the water can rise in vessels and tracheids of the xylem of tall trees. As the water is lost from the leaves during transpiration, a pulling action is generated due to which the water rises high in the tall trees. The force generated by transpiration can create pressure sufficient to lift the water over 130 M high.

Transpiration and Photosynthesis – A Compromise

Transpiration is an important phenomenon because

It’s pulling action helps in the absorption and transportation of water in the plant.

It supplies water for photosynthesis.

Transpiration cools the leaf surface.

It maintains turgidity of the cells.

Water and carbon dioxide are important for photosynthesis. Stomata are kept open for exchange of gases during the day. But it leads to a lot of loss of water. So plants get depleted of water due to continuous transpiration. Besides, C4 plants might have evolved to reduce the evaporation of water due to transpiration. Because they can maintain a constant supply of CO2 even after the closing of stomata.
Solved Questions for You. 

Q1. Transpiration is a necessary evil in plants. Explain.

Ans: Transpiration causes huge loss of water. It reduces photosynthesis, lowers growth and may cause wilting of the plant. Despite all these disadvantages, it is necessary. Because it provides the pulling action for water to rise in the trees. It also maintains the temperature.

Q2.  The C4 plants are twice as efficient as C3 plants in terms of fixing CO2. But they lose only half as much water as C3 plants for the same amount of CO2 fixed. Explain.

Ans: This is because C4 plants regulate a constant supply of CO2 and keep their stomata closed for some time. As a result, reduces the loss of water.