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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 84, No. 6, 1324-1329, December 2006
© 2006 American Society for Nutrition

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

Effect of garlic powder on C-reactive protein and plasma lipids in overweight and smoking subjects1,2,3

Martijn BA van Doorn, Sonia M Espirito Santo, Piet Meijer, Ingrid M Kamerling, Rik C Schoemaker, Verena Dirsch, Angelika Vollmar, Thomas Haffner, Rolf Gebhardt, Adam F Cohen, Hans M Princen and Jacobus Burggraaf

1 From the TNO Prevention and Health, Gaubius Laboratory, Leiden, Netherlands (SMES, PM, and HMP); the Department of General Internal Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands (SMES); the Centre for Human Drug Research, Leiden, Netherlands (MBAvD, IMK, RCS, AFC, and JB); the Department of Pharmacy, University of Munich, Munich, Germany (VD and AV); Lichtwer AG, Berlin, Germany (TH); and the Institute of Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, Leipzig, Germany (RG)

Background: Epidemiologic studies suggest that garlic may have beneficial effects on risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, these findings are not unambiguously supported by randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Objective: We sought to investigate the effects of a chemically well-characterized garlic preparation on biomarkers for inflammation, endothelial function, and lipid metabolism in subjects with risk factors for CVD.

Design: This was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 90 overweight [body mass index (in kg/m2) > 24.5] subjects aged 40–75 y who smoked >10 cigarettes/d. The subjects were randomly assigned to 3 parallel treatment groups: garlic powder (2.1 g/d), atorvastatin (40 mg/d), or placebo. Duplicate measurements were performed at baseline and after 1 and 3 mo of treatment. Treatments were compared with analysis of covariance with baseline as the covariate, and differences between the treatments were reported as mean percentage difference and corresponding 97.5% CI.

Results: None of the variables showed significant differences between the garlic-treated and the placebo groups. In contrast, compared with the placebo group, atorvastatin treatment resulted in significantly lower plasma concentrations of C-reactive protein (20.2%; 1.7%, 35.3%), total cholesterol (37.2%; 33.1%, 41.1%), LDL cholesterol (52.7%; 47.9%, 57.1%), triacylglycerols (31.9%; 20.8%, 41.5%), and tumor necrosis factor {alpha} (TNF-{alpha}; 41.9%; 19.0%, 58.3%) and increased the ratio of ex vivo whole blood lipopolysaccharide-stimulated to nonstimulated TNF-{alpha} concentrations (109.7%; 37.9%, 218.9%).

Conclusion: We conclude that a chemically well-characterized garlic preparation has no significant effect on inflammatory biomarkers, endothelial function, or lipid profile in normolipidemic subjects with risk factors for CVD.

Key Words: Garlic • C-reactive protein • CRP • lipids • endothelial function • humans






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