Zhangxian Purple Skin Garlic

Zhangxian Purple Skin Garlic

　　Purple skin garlic gets its name from its purplish-red outer skin and lotus-like cloves. It is mainly produced in towns such as Hadapu and, compared to similar products, boasts larger heads, bigger cloves, richer garlic juice, and a more robust flavor. It can be stored for extended periods without sprouting, making it a traditional specialty that sells well both within and outside the province.

　　 Purple skin garlic is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Liliaceae family. Its stem grows 2–3 feet tall, with long, slightly thick, flat, green leaves covered in white powder. In summer, it sends up flower stalks and produces pale purple umbels. After flowering, it forms a bulb. The seeds are contained inside the bulb. The underground stem is a plump, round bulb that is grayish-white or purplish-red in color. This bulb features several vertical splits dividing it into multiple cloves—that is, the garlic head. Some bulbs do not split and remain as one solid piece, known as "single-clove garlic," which is considered the rarest variety. Spring-planted and summer-harvested, its growth cycle lasts approximately 60–120 days.

　　 Purple skin garlic is extremely nutritious, containing protein, fat, sugar, calcium, phosphorus, iron, as well as vitamins A, B1, and C. Eaten raw, it has a pungent, spicy flavor that stimulates appetite and refreshes the senses. Purple skin garlic contains allicin and is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a remedy for dispelling cold, eliminating dampness, killing parasites, and detoxifying. With a warm nature and pungent taste, it is primarily used to treat symptoms such as nasal congestion from colds, lung weakness, chronic cough, whooping cough, diarrhea, and dysentery. The bulb contains volatile allicin, which has antibacterial and anti-trichomonas effects. Aside from treating bacterial dysentery and amoebic dysentery, it is also used to treat tuberculosis, hookworm, and trichomoniasis.

　　 The Hadapu region enjoys a cool climate and fertile land, with red loess soil that is ideal for growing purple skin garlic. The locals have a long history of cultivating this garlic and have accumulated rich experience. Local garlic farmers prefer using chicken manure and heated kang soil (a type of earthen bedding heated by a stove) as fertilizers for seed garlic, and strictly avoid chemical fertilizers. This area produces over 500,000 kilograms of purple skin garlic annually.