garlic (Allium Sativum)
History:
Allicin: the hidden healer in garlic
Allicin is a key compound formed in garlic and is responsible for the sharp smell and taste released when a clove is crushed. But its value goes far beyond aroma. Throughout history, garlic has been praised for its health benefits—used for thousands of years by Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, Vikings, Indians, and Romans. Even Hippocrates, the famed Greek physician, recommended garlic for treating pneumonia and healing wounds.
The true source of garlic’s medicinal power, however, wasn’t identified until 1944, when Cavallito and Bailey first isolated and described allicin. The delayed discovery had a simple explanation: fresh, intact garlic contains no allicin at all. Instead, allicin is created only when the plant is “under attack.” When garlic is cut or crushed, a stored compound called alliin comes into contact with the enzyme alliinase—two components kept separate within the clove. Their interaction triggers the formation of allicin, the plant’s natural defense mechanism.
Feeding Garlic Cloves:
*It can take up to 30 days to see the results from Garlic.
Instructions for a cow with active mastitis:
- Gently crush 5 small to medium garlic cloves, *use 3 cloves if bulb is extra large. No need to peel, leave skin and all. You're simply trying to wake up the allicin, not make applesauce. *Allicin loses its potency quickly, depending on temperature and other factors. We recommend feeding it to your cow within 30 minutes of gently crushing.
- Mix into your cow's favorite grain. You can even add honey or molasses for picky eaters.
- Feed Twice a day for up to 30 days, 45 to 60 days for harder cases of mastitis, then begin feeding it as a daily preventative. See below:
Instructions for daily feeding: Preventative, Fly control, Anti-Parasitic
- Gently crush 2 small to medium garlic cloves, *use 1 clove if bulb is extra large. No need to peel, leave skin and all. You're simply trying to wake up the allicin, not make applesauce. *Allicin loses its potency quickly, depending on temperature and other factors. We recommend feeding it to your cow within 30 minutes of gently crushing.
- Mix into your cow's favorite grain. You can even add honey or molasses for picky eaters.
- Feed daily.
Feeding Garlic Extract Oil:
If you don't want to crush garlic daily or have more than a few cows, oil extracts (plant derived oils) are super convenient. We personally preferred to use oil extracts due to convenience.
Herb Pharm Certified Organic Garlic Liquid Extract is what we would purchase right off of Amazon. One of their 1 ounce bottle is 700/mg per 0.07mL.
A cow can safely have between 100mg and 400mg per cow per day. The lower amount has shown to be perfect for preventative measures.
Dosing: 0.01mL or 2 drops per cow per day.
One (1 ounce bottle) will render approximately 300 doses at 2 drops per cow per day.
Feeding a large herd:
You can ask your feed mill to add garlic at 100G per cow per day based on TMR. Our mill couldn't obtain garlic if not we would have had it mixed in our feed.