A man weighing 80 kg and a young dog (10 kg) were investigated in the three experiments described. The man was known to be infected with Necator americanus and the dog with Ancylostoma caninum. During an initial period of 5 days (6 days in the second experiment) during which the man and the dog were given a diet containing no garlic, the faeces were sampled daily for control studies. Then, finely chopped raw garlic (Allium sativum) was added to the man's cooked food served at each meal (morning, midday, evening) for 5 days, and the faeces were sampled daily for 8 days in the first and for 11 days in the second experiment. In the third, the dog was fed garlic placed in the centre of a ball of raw minced meat, once a day. Details of garlic feeding in each case are tabulated. The man received daily from 9'1 to 14.5 g and from 15.4 to 21.4 g respectively, and the dog from 6.7 to 10.4 g. Standard egg counts were carried out. Harada-Mori cultures were then set up, 10 each day, each with 300 mg faeces; these were kept in the dark at 21°-23°C. After 48 hours, one culture was examined daily for 8 days for study of the larvae, random samples of 100 larvae being counted in an attempt to find any dead among them. The remaining two control and experimental cultures were kept for 10 days, after which the infective larvae at the bottom of each tube were killed with Lugol's solution and were counted under the microscope.
The egg counts and the mean larval numbers in all three experiments are tabulated. The egg counts obtained before, during and after the ingestión of garlic in the three experiments were more or less the same; therefore garlic did not demonstrably affect oviposition of the worms. On the other hand, numerous dead eggs in different stages of development and degeneration were found in cultures made during the period of garlic ingestión; two examples are shown in a photomicrograph. Moreover, the mean number of larvae was significantly smaller in all three experiments during the 5-day period of highest garlic concentration in the faeces, viz. 118, less than 200, and about 300, respectively, compared with 281, close on 300, and over 900 in the control periods before and after garlic ingestión. No dead larvae were found.
It was therefore concluded that garlic (and its metabolic products) in the small intestine, colon, or in the faeces, adversely affects the development of ancylostome eggs in culture, but it appears to have no detrimental effect on the larva once it has emerged. Possibly, it might also affect the rate of oviposition of the worms if ingested in larger quantities than those reported here.
F. E. Williams.
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