In March, Winona State biology professor Emmanuel Brako will join several other scientists and doctors at a conference in Ghana to discuss his experiment looking at the medical relationship between garlic and cancer.
The main objective of the conference, called the Second Global Summit on HIV/ AIDS, Traditional Medicine and Indigenous Medicine, is to identify traditional folk medicines and practices used in the prevention and management of illnesses including HIV and AIDS, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
The conference will consist of over 40 speakers from several different countries, including Switzerland, China, New Zealand, and India. Brako is one of seven speakers from the United States chosen to speak at the forum.
Brako will be presenting scientific research on an experiment that he performed last year with the help of alumni biology major Jacky Lafky.
The two were studying the effects of garlic on cancer cells and looking to see if garlic would be able to protect mice from cancer.
In the experiment, 16 mice were placed under study in a lab on campus.
A portion of the mice were given a daily diet of garlic-infused water for 44 days before being injected with a form of cancer cells known as myeloma, or cancer of the immune system cells.
The effects of the garlic were compared to a control group of mice that were given neither a garlic diet nor cancer cell injections.
Expanding on the scope of the experiment, Brako tested the effects of two different sources of garlic—a regular garlic bulb and commercial garlic dietary supplement tablets.
The mice that received a garlic-infused diet and were injected with cancer cells showed a survival rate that was not greatly different from the mice that did not receive a garlic-infused diet and were injected with cancer cells.
“There wasn’t a significant difference between getting the garlic and not getting the garlic,” Brako said.
Brako and Lafky also looked at the effects of garlic on cancer cells in a controlled environment under a microscope, or an in-vitro study.
In this in-vitro study, garlic appeared to exhibit a dose-dependent effect on the growth of cancerous cells, Brako said.
For example, in low concentrations, garlic seemed to support cell growth.
Although the results of his experiment showed no significant results, Brako was satisfied with the addition his experiment will make to the scientific community.
“We’ve provided a model for scientists to use to study different medicinal herbs,” Brako said.
Brako believes his experiment method can be used in future studies that look at the interaction between herbal plant extracts and cancers associated with cells of the immune system.
For future studies, Brako said that he would include a larger population of mice for more statistically significant results.
He added that he would like to continue with researching the affects of garlic, but in a different angle.
Using rabbit kidney cells, Brako is now studying to see if garlic, in combination with antibiotic medicines, will have a positive or negative relationship working together to kill cancer cells.

Contact Rachel at RDSmith5697@winona.edu