Garlic may provide some relief for millions of Bangladeshis and Indians whose drinking water is contaminated with arsenic.
Keya Chaudhuri of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata, and her colleagues gave rats daily doses of arsenic in their water, in levels equivalent to those found in groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Rats which were also fed garlic extracts had 40 per cent less arsenic in their blood and liver, and passed 45 per cent more arsenic in their urine (Food and Chemical Toxicology, ).
Chaudhuri says that sulphur-containing substances in garlic scavenge arsenic from tissues…
