Não se trata de falar de alhos e bugalhos, mas sim de um produto natural patentiado que permite os nossos reprodutores e voadores terem uma melhor condição fisica. O que me despertou para este produto foi ler no blog do M.Van Lint o uso do mesmo e a convição dele de que o produto era a causa da saude dos seus pombos neste inicio de época.

Fiz umas buscas na net e envei uns emails e hoje recebi a resposta do responsavel pela introdução no mercado Holandes.

Durante o telefonema que ele efectou para mim disse que são varios columbofilos Hollandeses clientes do seu produto e que o mesmo era usado com grande sucesso pela Ponderosa ou seja pelos Eijerkamp.

Allicina faz com que os pombos sejam mais resistentes a doenças.

Em baixo publico o texto em Inglês que me enviou:

Serge Ankri*, David Mirelman Department of Biological Chemistry,

ABSTRACT — Allicin, one of the active principles of freshly crushed garlic homogenates, has a variety of antimicrobial activities. Allicin in its pure form was found to exhibit:

i) antibacterial activity against a wide range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including multidrug-resistant enterotoxicogenic strains of Escherichia coli

ii) antifungal activity, particularly against Candida albicans

iii) antiparasitic activity, including some major human intestinal protozoan parasites such as Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia and

iv) antiviral activity. The main antimicrobial effect of allicin is due to its chemical reaction with thiol groups of various enzymes, e.g. alcohol dehydrogenase, thioredoxin reductase, and RNA polymerase, which can affect essential metabolism of cysteine proteinase activity involved in the virulence of E. histolytica.

Analysis of steam distillations of crushed garlic cloves performed over a century ago showed a variety of allyl sulfides. However, it was not until 1944 that Cavallito and his colleague’s [3] isolated and identified the component responsible for the remarkable antibacterial activity of crushed garlic cloves. The compound turned out to be an oxygenated sulfur compound, which they termed allicin, from the Latin name of the garlic plant, Allium sativum. Pure allicin is a volatile molecule that is poorly miscible in aqueous solutions and which has the typical odor of freshly crushed garlic [4]. Final proof of the chemical structure of allicin (figure 1) came in 1947, when it was shown that allicin could be synthesized by mild oxidation of diallvl disulfide [2]. The debate on the presence of allicin in crushed cloves versus its absence in odorless intact cloves was resolved after Stoll and Seebeck [5] isolated, identified, and synthesized an oxygenated sulfur amino acid that is present in large quantities in

garlic cloves and which they named alliin (figure 1). Alliin was found to be the stable precursor that is converted to allicin by the action of an enzyme termed allinase, which is also present in the cloves [6]. Only one isomer of alliin ((+)-S-allyl-L-cysteine-sulfoxide) was found to be present, which in itself had no antimicrobial activity. Numerous investigators studied the amounts of alliin and allicin present in different strains of garlic. Considerable variations have been reported, ranging from 2.8 to 7.7 mg/gram found in Romanian red [2].

The gene coding for the enzyme has been cloned, and upon translation, found to consist of 448 amino acids with a protein molecular mass of 51.45 kDa and together with a carbohydrate content of 5.5-6%, gives 55000 kDa [7, 8]. Allinase has 10 cysteine residues, all of them in S-S bridges, and their reduction, or the removal of the pyridoxal coenzyme factor, renders the enzyme inactive. Expression of a recombinant allinase has been achieved in the baculovirus system, and although protein yields were impressive, the enzymatic activity was very poor due to difficulties with folding of the protein (Mirelman et al., unpublished results). Moreover, in the clove, allinase is found closely associated with a lectin [9]. The site of linkage of the carbohydrate moieties of allinase has been identified at Asp 146 [9]. Significant homology has been reported between the garlic and onion allinases, although alliin was not detected in the latter species.

Garlic cloves are odour-free until crushed. Cross-section studies have indicated that the substrate alliin and the enzyme allinase are located in different compartments [2, 6]. This unique organization suggests that it is designed as a potential defense mechanism against microbial pathogens of the soil. Invasion of the cloves by fungi and other soil pathogens begins by destroying the membrane, which encloses the compartments that contain the enzyme and the substrate. This causes the interaction between alliin and allinase that rapidly produces allicin and which in turn inactivates the invader. The reactive allicin molecules produced have a very short half-life, as they react with many of the surrounding proteins, including the allinase enzyme, and making it into a quasi-suicidal enzyme. This very efficient organization ensures that the clove defense mechanism is only activated in a very small location and for a short period of time, whereas the rest of the alliin and allinase remain preserved in their respective compartments and are available for interaction in case of subsequent microbial attacks. Moreover, since massive generation of allicin could also be toxic for the plant tissues and enzymes, its very limited production and short-lived reac-tivity, which is confined to the area where the microbial attack takes place, minimizes any potential self-damage to the plant.

species of Escherichia, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Klebsiella, Proteus, Bacillus, and Clostridium. Even acid-fast bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis are sensitive to garlic [10]. Garlic extracts are also effective against Helicobacter pylon, the cause of gastric ulcers [11]. Garlic extracts can also prevent the formation of Staphylococcus enterotoxins A, B, and C1 and also thermonuclease [12]. On the other hand, it seems that garlic is not effective against toxin formation of Clostridium botulinum [13].

Cavallito and Bailey [4] were the first to demonstrate that the antibacterial action of garlic is mainly due to allicin [3]. The sensitivity of various bacterial and clinical isolates to pure preparations of allicin [14] is very significant. As shown in table I Mirelman et al., unpublished results) the antibacterial effect of allicin is of a broad spectrum. In most cases the 50% lethal dose concentrations were somewhat higher than those required for some of the newer antibiotics. Interestingly, various bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus as well as other multidrug-resistant enterotoxicogenic strains of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, Shigella dysenteriae, S. flexneni, and S. sonnei cells were all found to be sensitive to allicin. Allicin also had an in vivo antibacterial activity against S. flexneri Y when tested in the rabbit model of experimental shigellosis [15].

On the other hand, other bacterial strains such as the mucoid strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus β hemolyticus and Enterococcus faecium were found to be resistant to the action of allicin. The reasons for this resistance are unclear but may be because these bacteria tend to have a mucoid coat, making penetration difficult. So it is assumed that hydrophilic capsular or mucoid layers prevent the penetration of the allicin into the bacteria, but this has to be studied more in depth.

Table 1. Sensitivity of various bacterial species to allicin. Bacterial Strain	Allicin Concentration (LD50 μg/ml)			Comments
Escherichia coli		15	Sensitive to antibiotics
Escherichia coli		15	Multidrug resistant MDR
Staphylococcus aureus		12	Sensitive
Staphylococcus aureus		12	Methicillin resistant
Streptococcus progenies		3	Sensitive
Streptococcus β hemolyticus		>100	Clinical MDR strain
Proteus marbles		15	Sensitive
Proteus mirabilis		>30	Clinical MDR strain
Pseudomonas aeruginosa		15	Sensitive to cefprozil
Pseudomonas aeruginosa		>100	MDR mucoid strain
Acinetobacter baumanii		15	Clinical isolate
Klebsiella pneumoniae		8	Clinical isolate
Enterococcus faecium		>100	Clinical MDR strain

Fresh garlic extracts in which allicin is known to be the main active component have been shown to have in vitro and in vivo antiviral activity. Among the viruses, which are sensitive to garlic extracts are the human cytomegalovirus, influenza B, herpes simplex virus type 1, herpes simplex virus type 2, parainfluenza virus type 3, vaccinia virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, and human rhinovirus type 2 [23]. The allicin condensation product, ajoene, seems to have in general more antiviral activity than allicin. Ajoene was found to block the integrin-dependent processes in a human immunodeficiency virus-infected cell system [24]. Interestingly, there are some viruses like the garlic plant virus X which are resistant to the antiviral effects of garlic extracts [25].

Most recently a double blind placebo controlled study has shown significant protection from the common cold virus. Conducted by The Garlic Centre and published in Advances in Therapy this is the first serious work to show both prevention, treatment and reduction of re-infection benefits from taking Allimax Powder capsules once daily [16].

The main antimicrobial effect of allicin is due to its interaction with important thiol-containing enzymes. In the amoeba parasite, allicin was found to strongly inhibit the cysteine proteinases, alcohol dehydrogenases [22], as well as the thioredoxin reductases (Ankri et al., unpublished results) which are critical for maintaining the correct redox state within the parasite. Inhibition of these enzymes was observed at rather low concentrations (<10 μg/mL). Allicin also irreversibly inhibited the well known thiol-protease papain, the NADP^{+-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase from} Thermoanaerobium brockii, and the NAD+-dependent alcohol dehvdrogenase from horse liver. Interestingly, all three enzymes could be reactivated with thiol-containing compounds such as DTT, mercaptoethanol and glutathione [14] At concentrations that are at least a log higher (> 100 μg/mL), allicin was also found to be toxic to tissue-cultured mammalian cells [22]. As mentioned above, the significant difference in sensitivity between the microbial and mammalian cells may be explained by the much higher concentrations of glutathione that the mammalian cells possess.

Allicin also specifically inhibits other bacterial enzymes such as the acetyl-CoA-forming system, consisting of acetate kinase and phosphotransacetyl-CoA synthetase [26]. The inhibition is noncovalent and reversible. (14C) acetate incorporation into fatty acids of isolated plastids was inhibited by allicin with a 50% inhibitory concentration (I_{50 value) lower than 10 mM. Furthermore, allicin at bacteriostatic concentrations (0.2 to 0.5 mM) was found to partially inhibit, in} Salmonella typhimurium, the DNA and protein synthesis, but the effect on RNA synthesis was immediate, suggesting that this could be a primary target of allicin action [27]. E. coli RNA polymerase, in its alpha-subunit, contains a single sulfhydryl group which was shown to react with the monomercuric derivative of fluorescein, a specific reagent for

The condensation product of allicin, ajoene, which has a similar oxygenated sulfur group, has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of Trypanosoma cruzi, possibly by inhibition of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis [29]. Ajoene was also recently shown to inhibit phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis in the human pathogenic fungus

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis [30]. The inhibition capacities shown for ajoene clearly suggest that additional microbe-specific enzymes may also be targets for allicin.