Want to see our favorite hGH supplement? Click here!

Chemicals known as disulfides, which are found in onions, garlic and mahogany trees, are known to be active against fungus, bacteria and cancer. Previous animal studies had showed that they can fight malaria.

In the study, investigators exposed cultured, malaria-infected human cells to 11 disulfide compounds. They found that the compounds that helped wipe out the malaria parasite were also active against cultured melanoma cells.

Compounds that help give garlic its smell can battle malaria infection in the lab and may use a similar mechanism to attack certain cancer cells. Test findings revealed that malaria-infected cells and some cancer cells have the same susceptibility profile. Ajoene and dysoxysulfone, two disulfide compounds found in garlic and onions, may ward off malaria by disrupting an enzyme important in allowing malaria to infect cells and cancer cells to reproduce.

This is kind of interesting because if you have malaria in the area, eating a diet rich in garlic and onions could give you an edge, added the researchers at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene's 50th Annual Meeting, in Atlanta on November 13, 2001.