Garlic

Garlic

Scientific name: Allium sativum L.

Local/Bangla name: ‘Rasun’

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1988)

Kingdom:       Plantae

Phylum:          Magnoliophyta

Class:              Liliopsida

Subclass:        Liliidae

Order:            Liliales

Family:           Liliaceae

Genus:            Allium

Species:           A. sativum 

Botanical Description of Garlic

Habit: Biennial herb but mostly grown as annual .

Stem:Stem underground and modified into a small disc, generally known as bulb.

Leaf: Garlic has flat and slender leaves up to 1 m long. Leaves simple, radical, 4-10 in number when full-grown, distichous, glabrous, blade linear, up to 50 cm long.

Flower: Flowers in umbel inflorescence on a solid scape, tepals 6 in two whorls, polytepalous, greenish- white. Stamens 6. Carpels 3, united, ovary 3-celled, placentation axile, style short, stigma pointed. Fruits seedless.

Economic Importance: Garlic is an important spice crop used for various culinary purposes and conventional Unani and Ayurvedic treatments. It contains a sulphur-based compound named Allin, that helps to reduce the cholesterol concentration in human blood. Of the many beneficial effects of garlic, inhibition of the growth of cancer is remarkable. Garlic is used as a stimulant, carminative, anthelmintic, hypoglycaemic, diuretic, aphrodisiac, tonic, alterative and hypotensive. It is also used in wounds, leprosy, cough, piles, rheumatism and diabetes. In many Asian countries it is popular in the preparation of chutneys, pickles, curry powders, curried vegetables and tomato ketchup.

Table 1. Garlic Variety Released by BAU and SRC (BARI)