AGE is, as the name suggests, produced by aging garlic: it’s sliced, macerated and kept in water or alcohol for up to two years before being turned into a dietary supplement.
Aged garlic extract (AGE) differs from dietary garlic and most garlic supplements because, as indicated by its name, it is naturally aged for 20 months. During this lengthy period, the garlic changes in a few important ways: 1) the more irritating and pungent properties of the bulb are rendered much milder; 2) a conversion takes place wherein certain phytochemicals that are typically found in raw garlic are transformed into other “sulfur-containing compounds”. The latter point is significant because these substances (gamma-glutamyl cysteine, S-allyl cysteine, S-allyl mercaptocysteine and S-methyl cysteine) are not normally found in cooked or raw garlic and are believed to be responsible for the unique health benefits ascribed to AGE. In addition, recent research presented in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition explains that AGE contains higher levels of certain antioxidant phenols than cooked or raw garlic.
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