I see little there to challenge, but I do see that it really isn’t necessary.
Most if not all of the pharma-resistant bacteria are not resistant to commonly used essential oils of various plants, nor to allicin. Of course, none of these naturally occurring substances can be patented, thus there is little interest in their marketing, but a little education should be able to overcome thst drawback.
There is a “semi-homeless” man that hangs around our neighborhood doing odd jobs to support himself. about two years ago he contracted a necrotizing infection, and went to the VA where they treated him for about one day. Then the doctors at the VA hospital told him that it would be necessary to amputate his hand and part of his forearm, and that they had scheduled the surgery in 3 hours. He said that he replied “yea sure” or something to that effect, and then grabbed a smock and left as soon as they were out of sight.
He called his sometime squeeze for a ride, and then went and hid in the taco bell near the hospital. At the taco shop he locked himself in the mens room, and waited for her to knock on the door. When she saw his hand she said that what her mother always did, when she got infections as a kid, was to soak it in kerosene, which they did. That helped for a few days, but the hand started to become inflammed again in a couple of days, at which point he came by and asked me what to do. I just told him what I always did with my kids when they got skin infections like impatago was to smear thw skin with Vicks or Mentholatum (which always resulted in a bit of howling), which he began to do for a few days.
Much of the infection was gone by the third day, except for the areas around the finger nails, which remained very inflammed and sore. At that time I suggested that he try an Oregano oil and olive oil solution that I had used on toenail fungus in the past. The next time that I saw him was weeks later, and he was looking for work again, and his hand appeared ok except for patches of scab.
Now I don’t know if the doctors really were going to amputate his hand, but still, the infection that had swallowed about 75% of the skin of the back of his hand and wrist had healed without any great intervention.
Companies have projects to look all over the place in nature for medicines. Aspirin was found from tree bark. Cyclosporin, the anti-rejection drug was from a fungus in a dirt sample that a Sandoz (now Novartis) employee collected on his vacation somewhere in Norway. The company encouraged employees to collect samples of fungi and plants while on vacations.
I highly doubt that it was as he said. If he really had a “flesh eating” bacterial infection that widespread, it wouldn’t clear up in 3 days and would cause damage that wouldn’t clear up- look up pictures on the net (they are pretty gruesome).
From the Wiki article on allicin, it looks like research is being done, but if it gets into widespread use, I believe that resistance will arise eventually.It takes a long time to test if it is safe, actually works, and works better than what is out there.
I do think that garlic may be a good insect repellent. When I grew up in NY state, I got eaten alive by mosquitos every summer. Now that I have lived here in CA, I honestly not been bitten by a mosquito or tick on hikes in areas where others get devoured. I do like putting garlic salt on dishes and speaking to someone else that doesn’t get bit, he said he also likes garlic. maybe I don’t smell or taste good to them.