1.1 WHAT IS GARLIC
Garlic grows underground in the form of a bulb, from which long green shoots emerge. The garlic bulb is covered in a papery skin which is inedible. The bulb, or head, is in turn comprised of individual sections called cloves. These garlic cloves are themselves enclosed in the same paper like skin, and the pale yellowish flesh within is the part of the garlic that is used in cooking.
Antioxidant compounds in food are found to have a health-protecting factor. Primary sources of naturally occurring antioxidants are whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Garlic (Allium sativum) has been used in world cuisines as well as in herbal medicine for thousands of years and, at times, has been claimed to help prevent everything from high cholesterol to cancer. No clinical trials have been performed with allicin and it was never developed into a drug or commercial product due to its instability, its inability to be absorbed and its offensive odour. Allicin is the main biologically active component of freshly crushed garlic (Allium sativum) cloves. It is produced by the interaction of the non-protein amino acid alliin with the enzyme alliinase.
All of the background research involving allicin has been done on either garlic powder from different manufacturers (Lawson et.al., 1991) or processing the garlic cloves through many different chemicals in order to obtain allicin. The instability of thiosulphinates leads to rapid decomposition in the oven of a gas chromatograph, even at moderate temperatures, and while indirect quantitation has been reported, the methods suffer from significant limitations.
There are different varieties of garlic grown and most of them were developed for different environment rather than to satisfy taste demands. Some of the varieties are listed below:
Generally, there are two subspecies of garlic (USDA GRIN Taxonomy, A. sativum var. Ophioscorodon), which are the hardneck garlic (ophioscorodon) and soft neck garlic. The latitude where the garlic is grown affects the choices of type as garlic can be day-length sensitive. Garlic can be classified from kingdom to specie level as stated below;
Scientific classification of Garlic
Kingdom Plantae
Phylum Angiosperm
Class Monocots
Order Asparagales
Family Amaryllidaceae
Sub family Allioideae
Genus Allium
Species A. sativum (The plant list, Allium sativum L.)
Therefore garlic can be seen dried or fresh. The dried one is available all year round and the fresh garlic is in season from July to the start of October.
1.2 AIM/OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The aim of this study is to determine the effect of sprouting on the antioxidant capacity of garlic (Radical scavenging activity DPPH).
The overarching scope of study is to determine the radical scavenging activity (DPPH) of garlic. The study did not extend beyond examination of garlic in terms of its nutritional value, and its medicinal value.
1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS
2) ANTIOXIDANT: – This is a substance that inhibits oxidation especially one used to counteract the deterioration of stored food products. This is a super healthy compound. This is a molecule that inhibits the oxidation of other molecule.
3) OXIDATION:- Is a chemical reaction involving the loss of electrons or an increase in oxidation state. Oxidation reaction can produce free radicals. In turn these radicals can start chain reactions; when chain reactions occur in a cell, it can cause damage or death to the cell. Antioxidants can also terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediate and inhibit other oxidation reaction. They do this by been oxidized themselves, so antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or polyphenols (Sies; H, March 1997).
4) FREE RADICALS:- These are atoms or group of atoms with an odd number of electrons and can be formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules.