Kathmandu, June7

Garlic is a unique herb. I once burned a dry clove of garlic in a fire and found it smelled like roasted meat. I also remember that in the late 90s, the locally bred chicken in our farm in Chitwan got severely infected with Rudhi (the local term for a kind of flu) but survived after they were fed a mixture of crushed garlic and firewood ash while all the other chickens in the village died of the same flu. This was my first experience of the benefits of garlic in the treatment of flu in chickens.

I remember reading "Get the Best Health from Fresh Juice”, a book by Dr Anand Shanker of Anand Arogya Ashram, Bariyarpur, Motihari, Bihar, which mentions that the soles of human feet have a high concentration of pores and that if you put a clove of garlic inside your shoes, your breath will start smelling of garlic within 30 seconds. Conversely, your feet will smell of garlic if you put the clove under your tongue.

I recall my experience on the viral epidemics in the past, attacks of influenza in the 1960s and Rudhi around 2000. I also remember the wave of the deadly Japanese encephalitis, on which I have no experience. Local people used to drink hot water with herbs, ginger, turmeric and salt or consult physicians for treatment even though there was no known medicine against the virus. The infection lasted anywhere from 4 to 14 days.

Based on the experiences above, I tried a new experiment. When I had cough, cold and fever, I used to put a clove of garlic by splitting it into half under each sole inside the socks, under each armpit and inside my mouth. Thus altogether five cloves are needed. I then covered my whole body with a blanket to keep the warmth and aroma inside. I chewed the garlic slowly in about three hours to release the smell. The cold, cough and fever disappeared in 3 to 4 hours if the attack had just begun, but it would take about one night to recover if the infection had already progressed. The conventional time taken by viruses is 4 to 14 days, but by using this approach the net time will reduce from three hours to one night.

This year, too, the members of my family suffered occasionally from cough, cold and fever. When they applied the garlic therapy as per my advice, within four hours to one night, the malady was gone. Alternatively, one to two grains of black peppercorn may be chewed slowly in the case of inflammation of the throat, chest and other parts of the body. Once it took me 10 to 15 minutes to chew slowly two grains of peppercorn one after another. By the time I completed chewing, the symptoms had disappeared.

In March this year, my daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons in the UK tested positive for COVID-19. They all used the garlic therapy described here and made quick and full recovery. My grandsons (both under 14 years of age) recovered within four hours whereas my daughter and son-in-law recovered in a single night after the use of the therapy.

It is said that human beings started walking on their feet some six million years ago and that plants originated several million years before human beings. In the long history of their evolution, plants and animals must have confronted and developed immunity against various types of viruses, including the different strains of the coronavirus. For example, bats are not affected by the viruses though they can become carriers of many types of viruses. Similarly garlic may be one among many plants with the capacity developed to control various types of viruses.

The only thing needed now may be immediate transmission of an antiviral agent (garlic smell here) to deviralise the carrier body (vector). Earlier the approach, the quicker the cure. In this case, inhalation and absorption appear to work rather than ingestion. One should remember that viruses are about a thousand times smaller than bacteria, and in that context, the use of havans and homs in the Vedic rituals were probably not just hollow practices but time-tested measures to purify and detoxify the air through smoke generated in the course of yagyas and sounds produced by the conches. Understanding and identifying the herbs with the potential to deactivate certain viruses and identifying the value of swift administration of herbal antiviral agents on an infected individual is the challenge.

While lab tests have shown raw garlic to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, finding an effective mechanism to harness its anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties remains an issue of contention. The way garlic was utilised in some of the real life cases in my experience suggests it can become an effective home remedy – simple, cheap and quick enough with its anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. In short, this therapy holds promise as a form of plausible resistance as well as effective remedy against viruses, including the coronavirus.

The size of the sample (four here from my London-based relatives) is certainly too small to vindicate the cure hypothesis for COVID 19, but the test is simple, quick and easy to replicate by starting it with others in a way that is harmless and without side-effects. The precaution here is that the patient should not be afflicted with other critical maladies, such as low blood pressure, bleeding or allergic to garlic. This is what makes it worth trying. Other half dozen cases of untested viral infections, to whom I suggested this therapy, also got cured in less than one night.

Eating garlic or drinking boiled garlic water may not be as effective since it takes time to get processed in the digestive system and, thereby, is slow to reach the virus-affected organs. Also, cooked garlic does not give the strong aroma of raw garlic. Timely administration of antiviral properties of garlic through the mouth, soles and armpits appears to result in speedy travel of the antiviral agents in garlic to the nose, eyes, brain, respiratory system and the entire circulatory system. Finding out the correct method to use garlic is the challenge here. So, further scientific research in this area is the need of the hour. For example, the palm of the hands or navel may probably also be used in administering smell inside the body.

Today, COVID-19 has left the whole of mankind perplexed, including the most developed countries, incurring tremendous loss of lives and property. The current pandemic reminds us that the world is vulnerable to viral pandemics and diseases in ways no less terrible than the looming Third World War or a calamitous asteroid impact. Therefore, the role of herbs such as garlic, onion, ginger, turmeric and sandalwood in curing viral ailments and methods of their swift and effective administration deserve to be a theme for dedicated research and investment.