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Effect of Garlic on Carbohydrate Metabolism and Lipid Synthesis in Rats¹

Carbohydrate Nutrition Laboratory, Nutrition Institute, Human Nutrition Center, Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705

Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of garlic on carbohydrate metabolism and lipid synthesis in rats fed a control diet (CD) containing 1% cholesterol and 46.8% sucrose as a sole source of carbohydrate or the control diet plus garlic (GD, 100 g CD + 5 g equivalent to wet weight of garlic). Rats were treated either with intraperitoneal injection of acetate-U-¹⁴C or fed a diet containing sucrose-U-¹⁴C. The incorporation of radioactivity into total lipids or triglycerides (TG) plus free fatty acids in livers and total lipid in serum of rats was significantly lower with GD than CD. However, the incorporation of radiocarbon in abdominal fat pads (epididymal + perirenal) did not differ between diets. Synthesis of liver glycogen in rats refed their respective diets (sucrose-U-¹⁴C was added in the diets only for first 24-hour refeeding period) after a 24-hour deprivation of food reached a peak at 24 hours of refeeding period. The peak was higher in rats fed GD than in rats fed CD. At the end of the 48-hour refeeding, glycogen level was only 50% of the peak from the previous day in rats fed GD but was unchanged in rats fed CD. In both groups, specific activity of glycogen apparently did not change after 24 hours indicating that glycogen was not synthesized during this time. GD significantly reduced serum glucose but increased serum insulin and liver glycogen. The results suggest that garlic reduces lipid synthesis and influences glycogen metabolism in the liver of rats. The hypoglycemic effect of garlic seems associated with the increase of insulin level.

KEY WORDS: • garlic • fat synthesis • glycogen • blood glucose • insulin

¹ Mention of a trademark or proprietary product does not constitute a guarantee or warranty of the product by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable.

Manuscript received 10 September 1979.

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