posted
I've been mixing those two for years, and it tastes pretty good. Except I use a special kind of oregano, called vodka. Mmmmm.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Sometimes the extraction is quite simple. In fact, the extraction can occur during the cooking process. I have had students testing all sorts of foods, herbs and spices as antimicrobial agents as lab exercises. It is actually quite fun.
One of the most potent antimicrobial compounds is found in fresh garlic. It is a molecule called allicin. It works like gangbusters on virtually all food spoilage bacteria we have tried it on. The extraction protocol is very crude and simple. Simply crush fresh garlic in ethanol. The only problem is that the compund is not terribly stable outside of the cell. It oxidizes within a few hours and looses its effectiveness. (for you science geeks out there, the studies we did were well controlled, it is not the ethanol doing the killing!). Remember it only works with fresh garlic...minced and granulated have little or no effect.
One of the take home messages of these exercises is that if you cut yourself and have no neosporin, then a paste of garlic and ethanol (I suppose vodka or whiskey would work) will keep it very clean.
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:One of the take home messages of these exercises is that if you cut yourself and have no neosporin, then a paste of garlic and ethanol (I suppose vodka or whiskey would work) will keep it very clean.
...and burn like all get-out! Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Nope. Ethanol is only mildly potent as a microbial agent. Ask jw for details -- he said they did controlled tests, neh?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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