What Is Elephant Garlic?

While most people know that garlic is an herb that is often used to add flavoring to food, fewer people are familiar with garlic's lesser-known cousin, elephant garlic. With a similar flavor and chemical composition, elephant garlic can often be substituted for garlic in food or in herbal medications. Like any health supplement, consult your doctor before using elephant garlic as an herbal medicine.

Description

Elephant garlic, which is also known as great-headed garlic, looks very similar to regular garlic but has much larger cloves. The bulbs of elephant garlic may contain a cluster of many uniform cloves, or one large clove surrounded by several smaller cloves. Despite the name and appearance, elephant garlic is actually more closely related to leeks than to garlic, according a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Elephant garlic is commonly used in Thailand, and is typically only available at specialty stores or farmers' markets in the United States.

Flavor

As a member of the Alliaceae family, which also includes regular garlic, onions, shallots and chives, elephant garlic has a flavor similar to these other plants. The flavor is often described as milder and sweeter than regular garlic, but stronger than onions, as noted in a study published in the July 2009 issue of "Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry." Elephant garlic can be used to add a subtle hint of garlic flavor to food.

Chemicals

Like other members of the Alliaceae family, elephant garlic contains a concoction of volatile sulfur-containing compounds. These compounds are responsible for the distinct flavor of these herbs and also have medicinal properties. The concentration of sulfur compounds in extracts made from elephant garlic is similar to extracts made from regular garlic, although the exact chemical composition appears to be slightly different, reports the study published in "Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry."

Medicinal Uses

The sulfur compounds found in plants of the Alliaceae family have potent antimicrobial properties and are able to kill a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and viruses. In laboratory studies, extracts from elephant garlic killed bacteria belonging to the species Vibrio cholera, a bacterium that causes many types of food-borne illnesses, according to the "Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry" study. Adding elephant garlic to food can kill bacteria and may help prevent food poisoning.