Majiang Red Garlic

Majiang Red Garlic

　　Majiang County has a long history of garlic cultivation. Especially since the reform and opening-up, through years of selective breeding, the county has developed a unique garlic brand known for its strong spiciness—Majiang Red Garlic. It gets its name from its mostly purplish-red outer skin. According to an analysis report by the Biochemical Nutrition Research Institute of Guizhou University: in addition to being rich in inorganic salts, proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients, Majiang Red Garlic also contains all 16 amino acids essential to the human body. Particularly high levels are found in four essential amino acids: aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, and lysine, with contents per 100 grams of garlic being 1.03, 2.45, 2.28, and 0.53 respectively. Aside from being used as a seasoning, red garlic can also serve medicinal purposes and offers health benefits. With the continuous improvement of people’s living standards and growing awareness of health, red garlic—with functions such as regulating qi stagnation, warming the stomach, eliminating malnutrition, treating diarrhea, detoxifying, and killing parasites—is being further researched and utilized.

　　Majiang Red Garlic is a cultivated variety belonging to the Allium genus of the Liliaceae family, forming bulbs from cloves. It is a biennial herbaceous plant. It gets its name from its mostly purplish-red outer skin and its cultivation location in Majiang County, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. Majiang Red Garlic contains allicin, garlicin, and zinc-selenium elements. Owing to its long cultivation history and superior quality, Majiang Red Garlic enjoys a high reputation. Especially after nearly a century of selective breeding, a garlic brand with an attractive appearance, strong spiciness, rich content, and unique characteristics has been developed. It once won the “High-Quality Agricultural Product” award at the first Guizhou Provincial Specialty Agricultural Products Exhibition.

　　In addition to being rich in inorganic salts, proteins, vitamins, and other substances, Majiang Red Garlic also contains all 16 amino acids required by the human body, particularly four essential amino acids (aspartic acid, glutamic acid, arginine, and lysine), which are present in relatively high amounts—1.03g/100g, 2.54g/100g, 2.28g/100g, and 0.53g/100g respectively. Among them: fat, phosphorus, iron, and vitamin C are respectively 36.66%, 439.47%, 1120%, and 200% higher than the averages of Fujian, Shanghai, Hubei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang (as cited in Gu Zhi Zhang’s "Garlic Cultivation and Storage"). It is also rich in zinc and selenium, both essential to the human body.

　　To date, Majiang County has established 30 high-quality red garlic production bases and 12 sales outlets. The planting area remains stable at around 40,000 mu per year, with an annual output of 30,000 tons of red garlic, generating an output value of 90 million yuan and increasing per-mu income by 1,500 yuan. This has driven the development of the county’s red garlic industry. In January 2003, Majiang County’s application for the title “Hometown of Red Garlic in China” was approved in Beijing, and the county was officially designated as the “Hometown of Red Garlic in China” by the China Specialty Products Committee.