Scheme 4.

Impact of allicin on cholesterol-metabolism: Allicin was shown to inhibit two important enzymes of the cholesterol-biosynthesis pathway. On the one hand, Gupta and Porter [85] showed that allicin inhibits the squalene-monooxygenase while Focke and coworkers [50] demonstrated an inhibition of acetyl-CoA synthetase, a very early (and thus unspecific) step in cholesterol-biosynthesis. According to its chemistry, one can assume a direct reaction of allicin with the thiol-group of coenzyme A.