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By CAITLIN CROWLEY
AUSTRALIAN grown garlic is being hailed as a covid-killer around the world after new medical research led by Melbourne’s Doherty Institute found one particular variety could combat COVID-19 and flu infections, by stopping the virus taking hold in the digestive tract.
There’s been a flurry of interest since the findings were released on Wednesday this week, claiming extracts from one of the twenty garlic varieties tested in the study could kill COVID-19 and flu viruses with “99.9 per cent efficacy”.
Fifth generation St George farmer and commercial garlic grower, Andrew Moon, said he welcomed the buzz.
“Garlic is a hot topic in Australia at the moment and it’s refreshing,” Moon said.
“Any opportunity to promote the health benefits of this super food is good news for the industry.”
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Andrew and his brother David from ‘Moonrocks’ farms in Queensland’s south west have been growing garlic commercially for close to two decades and supply around 40 percent of the Australian garlic market.
However, David Moon told the Caller they were “reluctant to jump on the new bandwagon suggesting that garlic cures active covid,” with with the study commissioned by growers Australian Garlic Producers, yet to be officially published.
“They’re massive claims to make,” David Moon said.
“It took scientists almost a couple of years to come up with vaccines that work and to just do one study and say that you’ve got conclusive evidence that garlic wipes out COVID-19 is drawing a pretty long bow.”
Moonrocks worked alongside the University of Queensland on an independent research project in 2017 to evaluate Australian-grown garlic products and determine their nutritional and bioactive potential, especially compared to imported Chinese garlic commonly found on supermarket shelves.
“Do we know that garlic has a significantly positive impact on your immune system? Yes,” David Moon said.
“We have independently researched data to show rich antibacterial and antioxidant materials in Australian grown garlic, supporting its use as an antimicrobial agent to treat infections.”
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Moon said suggestions in media reports this week that the antibacterial properties of Australian grown garlic were specific only to certain varieties, was simply not the case.
“Whilst our research with the University of Queensland is based on our own varieties of garlic, we can comfortably say that it extends across the board with Australian grown garlic,” he said.
“Yes, some varieties are naturally stronger than others, but all varieties have antibacterial purposes.”
Andrew Moon said if people can take anything from the viral stories this week, it’s that Australians should simply include more Aussie garlic in their diets.
“Making an active effort to include a serve of garlic daily will do wonders for your health, not to mention the flavour of your meals,” he said.