The Facts:
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50 patients with treated but uncontrolled hypertension took placebo or 4 capsules of aged garlic extract (containing 2.4mg S-allylcysteine) daily for 12 weeks in addition to their existing antihypertensive medication.
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Garlic significantly reduced systolic blood pressure over the 12-week treatment period compared with placebo in patients who had unacceptably high systolic blood pressure at the start of the study.
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Aged garlic extract was therefore superior to placebo in lowering systolic blood pressure in patients with treated but uncontrolled hypertension.
Prof. Shaun Holt: This Australian study found that those with systolic blood pressure above 140 who took four aged garlic extract capsules each day had an average systolic blood pressure 10.2mmHg lower than the control group, who took a placebo. This improvement is as good as is sometimes achieved with standard medications for high blood pressure. Lead researcher Dr. Karin Ried said that “... there is a large proportion of people out there who are on medication and some people are on four different types but they still have high blood pressure, it is uncontrolled. ... when we gave them this garlic supplement we were able on average to reduce their blood pressure under the hypertension threshold”.
http://www.maturitas.org/article/S0378-5122(10)00227-6/abstract