Garlic has long been used as an antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal agent, and in countries where modern medicines are scarce, it remains a treatment for infection (65). Before the era of sulfonamides and modern antibiotics, garlic preparations were used in epidemics of typhus, paratyphus, cholera, dysentery, amebic dysentery, diphtheria, tuberculosis, influenza, and poliomyelitis [reviewed by Reuter et al (65)]. During World War I, soldiers whose diets included garlic suffered less frequently from dysentery than those who did not eat garlic (65). In vitro, garlic juice and garlic extracts are effective against a broad spectrum of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria (108). Even at low concentrations, they are especially potent inhibitors of Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria implicated in development of gastric and duodenal ulcers (109). Whether the in vitro effects are translatable to humans remains to be tested.