The humble garlic bulb has a big reputation in herbal lore for curing almost everything from the common cold to the plague.



Now it is lowering blood pressure.



A new study shows aged extract of garlic might be able to help lower blood pressure in the 3.7 million Australians who suffer from hypertension.



Karin Ried from University of Adelaide's Discipline of General Practice has conducted a 12-week trial with 50 people that shows garlic could be used as an adjunct to conventional drugs for hypertension.



"There is a large proportion of people out there who are on medication and some people are on four different types but they still have high blood pressure, it is uncontrolled," Dr Ried said.



"When we gave them this garlic supplement we were able on average to reduce their blood pressure under the hypertension threshold - so garlic might be a good complementary treatment option to control hypertension."



Raw, cooked and garlic powder aren't as effective as carefully aged garlic extract.

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