Thanks to the research of Subodh Kumar Sarkar of Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU), black garlic can now be produced in Bangladesh. It is widely used for health reasons.
Subodh, along with Jin Ichi Sasaki, formerly of Japan's Hirosaki University of Health Sciences, and microbiology professor Chowdhury Rafiqul Ahsan of Dhaka University, had been on the research since 2008. They developed three types of black garlic.
Black garlic is made by heads of the garlic aged under specialised conditions. The bulbs are kept in a humidity-controlled environment at temperatures between 60 and 77 degrees Celsius. The conditions are thought to facilitate the Maillard reaction, the chemical process that produces new flavour compounds responsible for the deep taste of seared meat and fried onions. The cloves turn black and develop a sticky date-like texture. There are no additives, preservatives, or burning of any kind.
Black garlic is different from the fresh garlic due to its higher content of allicin and rich amino acids which are almost double the amount of antioxidants when compared to white garlic.
Subodh, associate professor and chairman of biochemistry and molecular department at NSTU, claimed that the types produced by them contained stronger protein-compounds compared to the already existing ones in the international market.
