Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) was first developed "from wild Allium longicuspis Regel in Central Asia, about 5,000-6,000 years ago. Wild A. longicuspis is found in the Tien Shan (Celestial or Heavenly) mountains, on the border between China and Kyrgyrstan. Mathew et al. argue that since A. longiscuspis is sterile, it can't be the wild ancestor, but rather a cultivated plant abandoned by nomads. Mathew and colleagues suggest A.tuncelianum in southeast Turkey and A.macrochaetum in southwest Asia are more likely progenitors."

Garlic

Garlic was likely traded out from central Asia into Mesopotamia where it was cultivated by the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. The earliest remains of garlic come from the Cave of the Treasure, near Ein Gedi, Israel, ca 4000 BC (Middle Chalcolithic). Excavations at Minos' palace at Knossos on the Mediterranean island of Crete recovered garlic dated between 1700-1400 BC; the New Kingdom Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb (~1325 BC) contained excellently preserved garlic bulbs. China started using garlic at least around 2000 BC, as did India.

China is far and away largest producer of garlic with 20 mil tonnes - 80% of world exports. Half of all world exports come from countryside around Jinxiang. But there is a dirty secret, according to the Financial Times, that some of this garlic will have been picked and peeled by prisoners. Video.