The antimicrobial parts of garlic are the parts that give it that inimitable
flavor.  There are three or four such compounds in garlic, all with the
flavor, and one or is it two of them, I haven't looked this up since the
mid-1970's, do not release their aroma until gastric enzymes break down the
odorless molecule into a garlicky one.  The others, already recognizable
without treatment in the gut, are what tempt us to eat the garlic with that
wonderful scent.
All these compounds are absorbable over skin and even more so over mucous
membranes, and they will be transported willingly by the blood to all parts
of the body where they make their mark on the environment.  Amniotic fluid
and breastmilk will smell and presumably taste of garlic when it is present.
So when my father was helping me repair my bike, and I, the impoverished
student, was treating myself for a yeast infection with the gauze-wrapped
garlic clove placed strategically where the symptoms were worst, I bit my
tongue and managed not to say 'No, it's not that at all' when he remarked
'Boy, you must've had garlic in your salad dressing yesterday.'
;-)
Rachel Myr
not longing for the 1970's but they had a certain charm too

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