GARLIC 

• Classification
• Chemistry

Classification

• Allium Sativum
• 600 cultivated sub-varieties of garlic in the world
• different in size, color, shape, taste, number of cloves per bulb, pungency and storability
• two subspecies; 
  • Ophioscorodon , hard-necked garlics 
    • Rocambole
    • Creole,
    • Purple Stripe, 
    • Marbled Purple Stripe, 
    • Porcelain
    • Asiatic
  • Sativum ,  soft-necked garlics
    • Artichoke  
    • Silverskin

     

• Sub-species	Sub-species varieties	Characteristic	Picture
  Ophioscorodon  (hard-necked)	Rocambole Bogatyr Carpathian Colorado Black German Brown German Red German White GSF #65 Hokaido Zaitai Italian Purple Killarney Red Marino Russian Red Spanish Roja Temptress Yugo Red	thinner bulb wrappers lots of purple striping and splotches look as though they need a bath 6-8 cloves have few or no smaller internal cloves. excellent hot, spicy flavor require a colder winter shortest storing garlics
  	Creole Creole Red  Ajo Rojo	easiest eating raw garlics  bulb wrappers and the clove covers have beautiful vivid rose color taste that is rich, full  moderate pungency  retain flavor well when cooked 8-12 cloves per bulb arranged in a circular configuration tolerant of adverse weather
  	Purple Stripe Bogatyr Brown Tempest Chesnok Red Korean Red Mexican Red Persian Star Red Rezan Russian Giant Siberian Zetak Czech	vividly striped with purplish vertical stripes decorating the bulb wrappers rich in flavor, but not overly pungent Standard Purple Stripes (Chesnok Red and Persian Star) make the sweetest roasted garlic.
  	Marbled Purple Stripe
  	Porcelain Armenian Georgia Crystal Georgia Fire German Extra  Hardy German Porcelain German White Music Romanian Red Rosewood Polish Hardneck Romanian Red Zemo	most beautiful garlics bulb wrappers tend to be very white, thick, luxuriant and parchment-like few or no smaller cloves most cloves are large and fat (5) strong tasting garlics Clove covers have elongated tips and a golden brown color with some having distinctive vertical, purplish streaks
  	Asiatic
  Sativum  (soft-necked)	Artichoke   Achatami Acropolis Greek Ail de Pays Ger California Early Chet's Italian Red French Germinador Inchelium Red Kettle River Giant Lors Italian Red Italian Red Toch Siciliano Simonetti Susanville Transylvanian	lots of cloves,  12- 20, with lots of smaller internal cloves large, store well and have a wide range of flavors commercial growers favorite, easier to grow ,produce larger bulbs often called red garlics or Italian garlics despite the fact that most are neither red nor were ever grown in Italy
  	Silverskin Nootka Rose Silverwhite Silverskin Garlic Braids	usually see in braids longest storing of all garlics and have a soft pliable neck fairly hot strong garlics bulb wrappers are very white strikingly beautiful in Nootka Rose or Rose du Var have more cloves per bulb but smaller than artichokes

Chemistry

• Sulfur compound
  •  sulfur-rich amino acid cysteine,
    • stable, odorless
    • found in unbroken garlic cloves and bulbs.
    • eg :Alliin (pronounced al-lean) or  S-allylcysteine sulphoxide

    

   
  • intermediates 
    • very brief existence, disappear after being formed and
    • cannot be stored
    • formed when  cut, crush, or chop garlic cloves thereby freeing an enzyme (allinase is the name of the garlic enzyme), which acts on the cysteine compounds such as alliin.
   
  •  The isolable but none-the-less unstable and reactive compounds
    • having a typical fresh garlic aroma and taste, formed by very rapid joining together of intermediates .
    • eg Allicin, (pronounced "alice-in")  or diallyl thiosulphinate - formed by alliin breakdown by allinase

    

    • can be prepared in pure form and studied in the research laboratory
    • "unstable compounds"- at room temperature, have limited shelf life (a few hours)
    • storage - special low temperature refrigerators.
   
  • stable products
    • eg macerate of garlic, a product formed when garlic is chopped ("macerated") with salad oil or other edible oils.
      • rich source of "naturally-formed" garlic-derived compounds - scientific names ajoene, methyl ajoene, and dithiins.
      • can be stored at room temperature > a year, eg when dissolved in an edible oil.
   
  • distilled oil of garlic
    • prepared by steam distillation - heating garlic in boiling water and condensing (collecting) the steam as it vaporize 
    • diallyl disulfide-scientific name for the major component - resulted from allicin breakdown by heat 

    

    • strong, slightly medicinal, "artificial" smell of garlic.
    • used as a food flavoring agent