Dr Sakai Odourless Garlic

Dr Sakai Odourless Garlic USA version

1. Introduction & Background
2. Development of Garlic Breath
• Taste Panel Results
3. Breath Analysis
4. Research Notes
5. GC-MS Analysis of Garlic Breath - Introduction
6. GC-MS: Methodology & Operating Parameters

Chewing leafy plant material such as parsley after a garlic meal has long been recognised as a way of freshening the breath and reducing the malodour associated with garlic. This effect can be associated with other plant material and in particular the use of green tea leaves is well documented as is the Indian custom of chewing pan after a meal. Other methods of deodorising garlic include bonding garlic to peptides and/or saccharides , treatment with fumaric acid , the use of high pressures , soaking in saline and microwave irradiation . Numerous other techniques have been put forward over the years and some products have been launched commercially, primarily in the health-food or nutraceutical sectors.

The Fundamentals of Breath Malodour in The Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice gives a good introduction to the subject. A copy of the paper can be downloaded here (pdf).

One product that has been the subject of further study is a product known as 'Dr. Sakai Odour-Free Garlic.' This is a product that has been patented world-wide and is (or was) on sale commercially in Japan and the USA, where it has FDA approval. According to the Sakai process, the whole garlic bulbs are simply soaked in a solution containing 'natural silica and organic plant material' and then dried. The resultant product has the appearance of an ordinary garlic bulb and, as the deodorising process is claimed to act upon a biological pathway unrelated to the production of the primary garlic flavour, the flavour of Dr Sakai garlic is also said to be unaffected. The development of the malodour associated with 'garlic breath' is however claimed to be arrested.

See USA Patent Office abstract
Read full UK Patent No. 2217570 (pdf)

Background to Sakai garlic

Dr. lsao Sakai is an agricultural scientist and President of the Sanko Chemical Institute in Tokyo, Japan. He holds a number of patents on odour control and first applied for a UK patent for Sakai garlic in 1988. There was some press coverage in The Grocer in 1987 and in 1990 but nothing since appears to have been reported. 'Dr. Sakai' garlic is available in retail packs in Japan and is (or was) manufactured in the USA by a New Jersey-based company who have advertised the product on the internet.

Flavour Chemistry

Clearly there is little point in developing a method of deodorising garlic if the initial flavour itself is adversely affected. Whilst Dr. Sakai's claim is that the flavour is unaffected by the process this is clearly a main precondition upon which the possible use of Sakai garlic would be based. It is well understood that the primary flavour compounds in garlic are the thiosulphinates which are formed when garlic tissue is crushed. In a study of thiosulphinates by Block et al., Dr. Sakai garlic was assessed and the HPLC result is shown in Figure 1 alongside that of an untreated garlic sample.

Figure 1. HPLC analyses of Dr. Sakai & untreated garlic samples (Block et al. 1992)

Taste panels have been conducted to assess the flavour of the fresh and cooked 'Sakai' cloves and each has shown the Sakai garlic equal in flavour to untreated garlic. These findings bear out the results of Block et al shown in Figure 1.

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