Allicin

Chemists Shed Light On Health Benefits Of Garlic is the title of a Science Daily article revealing the secrets of garlic's potent antioxident properties. Allicin is the name of a compound which flavors garlic. But it also confers antioxident capabilities the details of which researchers believe they now can explain. Research findings were published in the January 2009 issue of Angewandte Chemie, a chemistry journal.

Reactions with radicals occur when allicin decomposes. A decomposition product called sulfenic acid reacts extremely quickly with damaging radicals and accounts for the very effective antioxident properties of garlic.