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Amazing Alliums — Why These Disease-Fighting Veggies Are Worth Eating Every Day!

For centuries, alliums like onions and garlic have been prized for their remarkable flavor and health benefits. A Jewish folktale illustrates their significance: Once upon a time, a man heard from a traveler about a wealthy kingdom that did not use onions in its cuisine, as the inhabitants had never seen or heard of the tasty bulbs. The enterprising man packed a cart with onions and traveled to the kingdom, where he presented the onions to the king. The king loved them. And he rewarded the man by filling his cart with gold. Upon returning to his village, the man told his neighbors what had happened. One of them reasoned that he could make even more money by introducing garlic to this kingdom.…

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 The Chemical Weapons of Onions and Garlic

WHAT do garlic and onions have in common with gunpowder? A lot. They’re incendiary. They can do harm and they delight. Sulfur is central to their powers... Their sulfur-based defense systems give the alliums their distinctive flavors. The plants deploy them when their tissues are breached by biting, crushing or cutting. The chemicals are highly irritating, and discourage most creatures from coming back for seconds. They kill microbes and repel insects, and they damage the red blood cells of dogs and cats. Never feed a pet onions or garlic in any form.

Articles of Interest

Alliums, Brimstone Tart, and the raison d’etre of spices

If it smells like onion or garlic, it’s in the genus Allium, and it smells that way because of an ancient arms race. Those alliaceous aromas have a lot of sulfur in them, like their counterparts in the crucifers. You can combine them into a Brimstone Tart, if you can get past the tears. The genus Allium is one of the largest genera on the planet, boasting (probably) over 800 species...

A Beginner’s Guide To Alliums

Perhaps you have edible crops in your own backyard. If so, this flower may look very similar to something you already grow! Allium is actually the Latin word for garlic. The ornamental allium is a genus of flowering plant in the same family as edible onions, garlic and chives. Many people are familiar with the pastel purple flowers these bulbs produce.

All About Alliums—Knowing Your Onions, Shallots, Garlic and Leeks

Alliums are the vegetables we can’t do without–onions, garlic, chives, leeks, and shallots. They are so called because they belong to the genus Allium. We add them to pizza and pasta, soups and stir-fries, and Thai and Indian cuisine. So why not make some space for alliums in your garden this year?

Allium Flavonols: Health Benefits, Molecular Targets, and Bioavailability

Allium species are revered worldwide as vegetables, condiments, and spices as well as the therapeutic agents in traditional medicine. The bioactive compounds in alliums mainly include organosulfur compounds, polyphenols, dietary fibers, and saponins. Flavonoids, particularly flavonols from alliums, have been demonstrated to have the antioxidant, anticancer, hypolipidemic, anti-diabetic, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, and antimicrobial activities.

Allium vegetable consumption and health: An umbrella review of meta‐analyses of multiple health outcomes

In conclusion, allium vegetables, as common vegetables consumed around the world, were suggested to be beneficial for cancer prevention in this umbrella review. In particular, garlic seemed to be comparatively safe and recommended as a long‐term dietary component for patients with dyslipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension.

Exploring The Stinky Science Of Alliums

Onions and garlic have evolved chemical weapons to protect themselves from predation and disease. In his book Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science, chemist Eric Block describes that intricate chemistry, and writes of alliums in kitchens, medicine cabinets and opera houses.

Garlic Wards Off Vampires. And Other Allium Health Benefits

There truly is nothing like homegrown garlic, I have to say. It is so sweet, juicy, light and spirited that I can eat it raw--with abandon.

Harnessing the nutraceutical and therapeutic potential of Allium spp.: current insights and future directions

Apart from the culinary usage, Alliums are known for their therapeutic potential since antiquity. Alliums contain diverse bioactive compounds such as, sulfur-containing compounds (allicin, diallyl sulfides), flavonoids, and saponins. These compounds have demonstrated a wide range of pharmacological actions, including antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, neuroprotective, cardioprotective activities and treatment of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia.

Health benefits of allium vegetables

These vegetables contain organo-sulphur (allylsulphides) and flavonoids. Onion is especially rich in quercetin and together they contain numerous vitamins and minerals. Apart from these, onion and garlic also contain proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dietary fiber etc.

Know Your Onions (and Shallots and Leeks and Ramps)

Edible alliums are linked by their stink, a pronounced aroma caused by the sulfur compounds that make them up. This odoriferous character, ranging from sweet and herbal to strident and metallic, means you always know when there’s an allium in the room, often before it’s even sliced. It’s these same sulfurous vapors that can sting your eyes.

Life after onions: is there an alternative to alliums?

What do you do if you can no longer eat onions, but still miss their flavour?

Science Of Stink: Blame Sulfur Compounds For Your Garlic Breath

And since garlic is so pungent, most of us probably don't eat enough to actually reap any major health benefits, Block says. It does stop the spread of disease in at least one way, though, Block says. "As I once heard a comedian say, by eating garlic you'll have such bad breath that no one wants to come near you."

The Health Benefits of Alliums (Onion Family)

The onion family, also known as alliums, includes hundreds of different species belonging to the genus Allium, although the ones we’re most likely to see on a dinner plate are onions, garlic, leeks, chives, scallions, and shallots. The word “allium” is believed to derive from the Greek ἀλέω (or aleo), which means “avoid,” and refers to the potent odor of these vegetables! (Indeed, alliums contain an enzyme called alliinase that produces volatile sulfur compounds when their plant tissue gets damaged, leading to their characteristic aroma and taste. These compounds also help keep the plants safe from pests!)

The Science Of Why Onions Make Us Cry

Many a poet has pondered. Is it because their beautiful, multilayered complexity moves us to weep? Are we mourning the majestic bulb as we cut it up and consume it? Or are these tears induced by the tragic tedium of chopping, chopping, chopping? Yes, yes. All of the above. The onion is multilayered in its complexity — literally and metaphorically. Robert Daly/Getty Images But also, it's because of a chemical irritant called syn-propanethial-S-oxide, says chemist Eric Block, who has written the authoritative book on onions — and other alliums. "See, the onion is a perennial bulb that lives in the ground with lots of critters who are looking for a snack," says Block. "So it has evolved a chemical defense system."

What to grow with alliums

Alliums are versatile plants that work well in just about any planting scheme. Pair them with grasses in a prairie-style display, or cottage garden plants for a loose, romantic feel. There's a huge variety of alliums to choose from, ranging both in height and size of bloom. Most flower from late-spring to early summer, but breeders are working on cultivars that bloom later in the year.