European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Unlocking the by Mary Esch the associated press n a Small Laboratory with the smell of a Deli Eric Block explores the molecular makeup of an ancient Folk remedy and culinary Herb. So intimately has he come to know his us Lurous subject in 25 years of study that he is regarded As an International authority on the bulb s Complex chemistry. These Days that s a popular topic As medical researchers around the world seek hard evidence of garlic s legendary health benefits. For More than 4,000 years garlic has been a dietary Staple Medicine and Amulet against the evil Eye. An egyptian papyrus dating to 1500 . Listed it As a cure for 22 ailments. In ancient Greece Hippocrates and Aristotle recommended garlic therapies. The roman naturalist Pliny listed 61 uses for the Herb including driving away scorpions disinfecting dog bites and curing leprosy asthma and epilepsy. Louis Pasteur first documented in 1858 that garlic kills bacteria. The Herb was widely used to disinfect Battle wounds and prevent gangrene when penicillin and sulfa drugs ran Short during world War ii. Recent studies have indicated that garlic can reduce cholesterol inhibit blood clots ease asthma and help. Prevent heart attacks and strokes. Cancer researchers i. Map Grace Reynolds opens a Sotneck garlic bulb to show How its inside is different from that other favorite hard neck variety Rocamboli left. Or. Eric Block uses the Gas chromatograph sitting next to his computer screen to examine the Sulphur compounds in garlic. The compounds Are believed to give garlic its medical Powers. A have found that compounds in garlic can inhibit the growth of tutors in mice and rats. Quot it s proved to be a Rich area for research Quot said Block a professor at the state University of new York at Albany. Block got interested in Fulfur chemistry As a doctoral student 30 years ago in Nobel laureate . Corey s lab at Harvard where he studied the Industrial solvent Dimso. That Fulfur compound held Promise As a treatment for arthritis until rat studies linked it to Eye diseases. Quot when i left Harvard and was setting up a Laboratory in St. Louis around 1967,1 was looking for an area of research that everyone else was t working on Quot Block a said. So he followed a us Lurous path to onions and garlic. His interest is analysis. He has concentrated on perfecting ways of extracting and identifying the hundreds of Fulfur compounds in garlic rather than on testing their medical effects. Garlic contains thousands of chemical compounds Block said. But researchers Are interested mainly in the Fulfur compounds which account for the flavor and biologic effects. In a curious Chain of reactions about 10 volatile Fulfur compounds Are formed when the garlic Clove is Cut activating an enzyme encapsulated within the Plant Ceils Block said. Hundreds of other compounds Are formed when the Herb is mashed minced baked boiled Fried or otherwise subjected to Kitchen chemistry. When he moved to Albany in 1981, Block said he followed up on some work done in the 1940s at the Sterling organics co. Across the Hudson River in Rensselaer. Quot the Albany area played a key role in the entire Field of the medicinal properties of garlic Quot Block said. Quot the original work on Allicino the medicinal component of garlic was done at Sterling. ,. They started testing it on Scalp diseases and fungal infections. But they found it was so Stinky it would never be  following a Lead in old Sterling papers Block and colleagues in Venezuela isolated the substance in garlic responsible for the Herb s ability to prevent blood clots. Quot we called it Joene for the Spanish word for garlic a  Block also teamed up with new York University school of Medicine researcher Sidney Belman to identify the substance propylene sulfite a garlic and onion extract with anti tumor effects. And he has collaborated with German scientists to identify onion and garlic compounds Active against asthma. With funding from the Mccormick spice company he developed a method of extracting garlic s flavor compounds using liquid Carbon dioxide. Quot it s the same technique used to decaffeinated Coffee Quot he said. One thing researchers Haven t found is a Way around garlic s odor. Fresh garlic raw or briefly cooked has the widest Range of nutrients. But it also causes bad breath and indigestion in some people. Garlic pills Quot enteric coated Quot so they digest in the intestine rather than the stomach solve the breath problem. But once Allicino Breaks Down and gets in the bloodstream the whole body May subtly reek of garlic if the pills Are potent Block said. At the 5-year-old Hillside organic farm in the rolling Countryside 15 Miles East of Albany Grace Reynolds is Grace Reynolds adds a bit of garlic to her daily cup of health juice. Experimenting with another aspect of garlic a the Best Way to grow it. Her Fields produce 95 varieties of the herbs Rosy to Tamboles for their productivity Sitver skins for braiding Continentals for their big Ball of blossoms. Quot my personal favorite is the Rocamboli Quot she said breaking open a Ball of Burgundy skinned cloves. Quot some Are Brilliant red like Jam or Bright Pink. There Are striped ones bluish ones. They re wonderful to look  Reynolds is among a rapidly expanding group of growers who see Cash in the passion for garlic. Most of Reynolds customers Are other Small Farmers and Home gardeners who want to sow her cloves. Quot i m All for that Quot she said. Quot the main reason i m so enthusiastic about garlic is for its health benefits. The More people Are growing it the More they la eat it. And Well have More healthy people. Most of the garlic consumed in the United states comes from warm sunny California and China. But Reynolds belongs to an organization the garlic seed foundation which is helping Small scale Farmers find varieties suited to the Shorter Wetter Summers in new York and other states. Garlic is a labor intensive crop. Quot each bulb has to be handled seven times Quot Reynolds says. Quot and that does t include the mulching weeding irrigating hoeing and planting cover crops,.&Quot the cloves must be separated from the bulbs and planted by hand. The Flower shoots must be Cut off in june so they Don t deplete the bulbs. The mature garlic is pulled by hand in late summer Hung on wooden Racks to dry then trimmed sorted and packed in boxes. Reynolds has been experimenting with various methods of planting mulching and drying As Well As. Trying out dozens of varieties. Quot garlic is divided into two main types hard necked and soft necked Quot she said. There Are three kinds of hard necks Rocamboli Continental and wild. Soft necks Are subdivided into Silver skins and artichokes. Quot the Artichoke is the kind you find in the grocery store because that s what California produces Quot Reynolds says. But hard necks particularly to Tamboles Are Best adapted to the Northeast she says. While Reynolds is enthusiastic about growing garlic she admits she in t As crazy about taking it As Medicine. Quot i Don t really like it Quot she said Quot but i take a Clove a Day for health. I put slivers of it in Gelatin capsules for my daughters and i chop it up and Swallow it with v-8  Popcorn s smell makes the Mouth water by William Allen St. Louis Post dispatch t s a common scene in the modern office a worker walks Down the aisle with a hot bag followed by a floating Trail of delicious buttery Aroma. As the Trail expands Over both sides of the aisle you sniff deeply and your Mouth Waters. Like a child behind the pied Piper you follow the smell to the source a bag of Popcorn. What is in that Aroma lots of things experts say the list ranges from dozens of chemicals to Complex processes in the nose Anc brain to the food Industry s Success at manipulating our sense of smell to make its products More attractive. Enticement is the key. Food chemists Call it Quot letting the Genic out of the bottle the Mouth watering Genie they be created for microwave Popcorn helps explain Why yearly Popcorn sales have nearly tripled since 1970 to More than 1 billion pounds and show no signs of slowing Down. Here s How the Genie works. The most prominent compounds in the buttery Aroma of microwave Popcorn Are among the dozen or so. Components of fresh butter said Karl Mark a chemist with Anheuser Busch inc. They have names like a acetyl acetaldehyde and Acet oin. As dry microwave cooking replaced some saucepans and Oil Over the past two decades Many of these compounds were added to bags of microwave Popcorn to Spike it with More flavor. When the bag is heated Large fractions of these compounds boil off changing from liquid to Gas Quot that s what fills the room up with that Fine Aroma As it leaves the bag Quot Mark  natural and synthesized butter compounds Arentt the Only doors released when a bag is popped. Peter Schieberle a German scientist found that 23 odor producing compounds give Plain Popcorn its enticing Aroma from roasted Corn to Juicy fat. The human nose has an impressive ability to detect this Complex mixture of chemical compounds Schieberle discovered that the nose can detect some of the doors that bake off Popcorn at concentrations lower than one part odor for every 1 billion parts of air. How do these compounds floating in the air get our attention first your nose inhales flotillas of Popcorn odor molecules called Odo rants they pass Alonga mucous membrane at the roof of the nasal cavity. Protein molecules in the membrane attach to the Odo rants and carry them to a layer of cells known As olfactory receptor celts hairline structures called cilia stick out from these Ceils like the branches of Trees. The Odo rants pass through this virtual Forest of cilia. Depending on the Odo rants size and shape they plug into the cilia at places where they fit. The pattern of plugging in sets off a Complex Chain of signals along nerve fibres to the brain said Daniel Armstrong a chemist at the University of Missouri at Rolla to. If that sounds complicated it s just the beginning. To each have about 6 million olfactory receptor cells and each cell has Between 10 and 30 cilia because each Type of odor molecule fits in Only certain spots on the cilia each smell triggers signals along a unique pattern of nerve fibres. The brain interprets this unique pattern to Tell what odor is in the air. Exactly How and where the brain processes and stores this information about odor is Quot a four hour lecture a said Richard Doty director of the smell and taste Center at the University of Pennsylvania medical school in Philadelphia. J suffice it to say that the brain can distinguish among what researchers estimate is 10,000 kinds of Aromas a All within a fraction of a second. And when it hits on pop com and your Mouth starts to water the chemists have completed their  Howard nows Sonvico a 16 the stars and stripes tuesday june 14, 1994 the stars and stripes 17