Supplement evidence

038 / 575Botanical

Garlic extract

View my plan →

The short answer

Some preparations produce small reductions in blood pressure or LDL cholesterol.

Evidence and scope: Mixed evidence
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Small risk-factor changes do not establish cardiovascular-event or lifespan benefits.
Before deciding: Can increase bleeding and interact with anticoagulants and some medicines.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Blood pressureProduct-specific; aged extracts often provide 600–1,200 mg/day in trials

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityFormulation-dependent

Not usefully classified as a fat- or water-soluble vitamin; absorption depends on the salt, extract, delivery system, and meal.

How it is commonly taken

Take with food if it causes GI symptoms.

Do not combine casually

Bleeding risk, anticoagulants, surgery, HIV medicines, and product standardization matter.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

4research papers in this ledger

19unique primary studies represented

—unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2026

Evidence contextPMID 42527229

Retraction notice for a 2024 aged-garlic blood-pressure meta-analysis

The publisher retracted the 2024 synthesis on July 29, 2026. JIVANA excludes it from efficacy conclusions and study or participant totals.

Published: 2026

Study design and methods

Design: Publisher retraction notice
Population: Not applicable; publication-status record
Intervention: The formerly cited 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis
Outcome: Retraction status

Open research record ↗

2025

Mixed or qualifiedPMID 40628369

The Effect of Aged Garlic Supplementation on Blood Pressure and Lipid Profile

Aged garlic lowered systolic pressure by about 2.5 mmHg and LDL by about 4.4 mg/dL; diastolic pressure and HDL did not significantly change. These modest surrogate effects do not prove fewer cardiovascular events.

Published: 202519 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Dose-response systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 clinical trials
Population: Adults across cardiovascular, hypercholesterolemia, and other metabolic-risk populations
Intervention: Aged garlic preparations versus control
Outcome: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and lipid profile

Funding or conflict note: Participant totals were not reported in the abstract and are not inferred.

Open research record ↗

2016

Mixed or qualifiedPMID 26869811 · ACTRN12613000747729

The effect of aged garlic extract on blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors in uncontrolled hypertensives

Mean systolic pressure favored aged garlic by 5.0 mmHg, with larger reductions among responders. Other risk markers were exploratory, and the study did not test cardiovascular events.

Published: 2016Duration: 12 weeksn=88 participants

Study design and methods

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
Population: 88 adults with uncontrolled hypertension who completed the trial
Intervention: Aged garlic extract 1.2 g/day or placebo
Outcome: Blood pressure, hemodynamics, arterial stiffness, lipids, inflammation, platelet function, and tolerability

Funding or conflict note: This trial is represented in the later aged-garlic syntheses and is excluded from aggregate totals.

Open research record ↗

2012

Does not support the tested claimPMID 22895963 · CD007653

Garlic for the prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients

Neither trial reported cardiovascular events or mortality. One small trial lowered blood pressure, while adverse-event reporting was insufficient; clinical-outcome benefit remains unproven.

Published: 20122 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Cochrane systematic review of two randomized placebo-controlled trials
Population: People with hypertension
Intervention: Garlic-only preparations versus placebo
Outcome: Cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, blood pressure, and adverse events

Funding or conflict note: The older trials may overlap later surrogate-outcome syntheses and are excluded from aggregate totals.

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence378 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.