Garlic & Health

a European initiative for the development

of high quality garlic and its influence on

biomarkers of atherosclerosis and cancer

in humans for disease prevention

Chris Kik, Plant Research International, Wageningen, The

Netherlands

Garlic & Health: project key facts

started in February 2000 running time: 4 years budget: 6.112.384 Euro (EU: 3.939.136

Euro) 14 partners: 6 universities, 6 research

institutes, 2 companies (and 5 subcontractors)

countries involved: FR (4), GER (3), UK (2), NL (2), ISR (2) and ESP (1)

human resources: 84 person years input

Garlic & Health: first annual meeting Cordoba (Spain)

W P 4: S u lp h ur p a th w ay

W P 3 : C u lt iva tion

W P 2: B ree d in g S yste m s

W P 1 :G e n e tic R e so u rces

G a rlic th e m eco o rd in a to r

W P 8: H um a n in te rven tion

W P 7 : P h arm a ce u tics

W P 6 : C a n cer

W P 5 : C a rd io -va scu la r d ise a ses

H e a lth the m eco o rd in a to r

G e n era l P ro jec t coo rd in a to r

Garlic & Health: management structure

Every WP has a coordinator which co-ordinates the activities of the participants involved

Garlic & Health: communication

Good communication is one of the most important factors for the success of a project

Garlic & Health: communication

Meetings half year: 1.5 days; annual: 3 days; ad hoc

Internet home page: public and restricted area monthly e-reports

Presentations scientific: articles, posters, etc popular: newspapers, brochures, etc

Garlic & Health: communication

Confidentiality contract consortium agreement

‘No info goes unauthorized to other parties outside the project’

Garlic & Health: rationale behind the

project

Garlic: quality and price of European garlic is not competitive on the world (and European) market

Health: lack of studies on the precise action of garlic in the prevention of cardio-vascular diseases and cancer

Garlic & Health: main project aim

‘To improve the quality of garlic and derived products and to understand the sulphur metabolism in the plant as well as in the human body, in order to strengthen the European based garlic pharma and food industry and to increase public health’

Garlic & Health: garlic research foci

WP1: Genetic resources Establishment of a unique garlic core collection (sulphur,

fertility) WP 2: Breeding systems

Sexual hybridization, genetic transformation, mass propagation

WP 3 : Cultivation methods WP 4: Analysis of the sulphur pathway in garlic

S pathway intermediates S genes localization of S pathway in plant

Sulphur metabolism in plants

SOIL

SO42-

sulfatetransporters

SO42- APS SO3

2-

sulfite reductase

ATP PPi2e-

ATP sulfurylase

6e-

APS reductase

S2-

serine +acetyl CoA

serine acetyltransferase

OAScysteine synthetase

CYS-glutamylcysteine synthetase

-glu-

CYS

glu

glutathioneGSH synthetase

gly

METHIONINE

Stress, secondary

metabolism

Allium - specific sulphur metabolism

glutathione

methyl

S-me-GSHglu

-glu-me-cysOxidase [under characterization]

-glu-me-cys sulfoxide-glutamyl transpeptidase[cloned]

methyl-cysteine sulfoxide

?

Allium &crucifers

Allium onlyMethacrylate

carboxy-propyl-GSH

-glu-carboxypropyl-cysteine

propyl & propenyl cysteine sulfoxide

?

?

Allium - specific sulphur metabolism

ASCOs in mesophyl cells

alliinase in bundle sheet cells

Garlic & Health: health research foci

WP 5 and 6: Analysis of the molecular mechanisms of garlic bio-active sulphur compounds in cardio-vascular diseases and cancer

WP 7: Establishment of pharmaceutical requirements for new garlic formulations

WP 8: Testing of newly developed formulations in a human intervention study

Garlic & Health: cardio-vascular diseases

Garlic & Health: cardio-vascular diseases

{

media

intima

fibrosischolesterol

clefts necrosis

mineralisation

Atherosclerosis in aorta of APOE*3-Leiden transgenic mice

Normal cell Tumoral cellsInitiated cell

Programmed death of damaged cells(APOPTOSIS)

DNA mutation Proliferation

Normal cells

Repair

Garlic & Health: carcinogenesis

Conversion

Preneoplastic foci induced by aflatoxin B1 in the rat liver

Control diet Diallyl disulfide (2000 ppm in the diet)

Garlic & Health: pharmaceutics

Development of analytical and dissolution methods

Development of new garlic dosage forms bio-availability stability

Garlic & Health: human intervention

study placebo controlled three months study

with 2 x 24 volunteers check on biomarkers for:

atheroclerosis: ox-LDL, adhesion molecules, etc cancer: phase II enzymes, damage to

lymphocytes, etc

the Garlic & Health participants wish you a pleasant symposium !!

(www.plant.wag-ur.nl/projects/garlicandhealth)