Chapter 371 Allicin
"Where are you from?" Zhang Xingjiu asked.
"To answer your question, sir, I came from the lower river." The visitor responded hastily and politely, revealing the cautiousness of a traveling merchant.
The so-called "xiahe" means the lower reaches of the river. Many places in the southwest say this. Sichuan cuisine is divided into three major factions: Shanghe Gang, Xiaohe Gang, and Xiahe Gang, which are based on the locations of various places on both sides of the river.
The person who replied was none other than Chen Shukang, who often contacted Zhang Xingjiu in Shanghai. One could not help but admire his abilities. Whether he was pretending to be a comprador of a foreign company in Shanghai or a merchant in the southwestern mountainous area, he acted very well.
"Oh? What's the situation over there? Is there no fighting? Can we still go?" Zhang Xingjiu asked hurriedly with pretended concern.
"Well, it's neither good nor bad. There are always some risks, but we can find a way out if we think of a way." Chen Shukang took over the conversation and slowly walked to Zhang Xingjiu, looking around from time to time, as if there were some things that were not convenient to say.
Zhang Xingjiu was still thinking about what reason he could find to call him into the house to talk alone, but the other person took the initiative to bring up the topic, so he quickly took him upstairs. The other guests didn't find it strange. It was obvious that this merchant wanted to sell some information in exchange for a reward, so naturally he couldn't let other people hear it.
After asking the students to stand guard outside, Zhang Xingjiu and him went into the house and after making sure no one was eavesdropping, they quickly asked, "How are you doing recently?"
Chen Shukang did not hide anything and said what he could, emphasizing that Ma Xinhua was relatively safe. He also mentioned Feifei and other old acquaintances of Zhang Xingjiu. Now Zhang Xingjiu was finally relieved. He knew the future of everyone else except Zhang Guoqiang, who was a variable. Now hearing that his child was fine, Zhang Xingjiu finally felt relieved.
Then he talked about the reason why he appeared here. He had been leading people to collect intelligence nearby during this period of time. When he heard that Zhang Xingjiu happened to be here, he hurried over to see him and inform him of some news.
Zhang Xingjiu quickly took out most of the medicines and money he had brought with him and stuffed them into his pockets. "You must need these now. It's a pity that I didn't know about this in advance, otherwise I could have prepared more."
"This is already a lot." Chen Shukang was very grateful and thanked him repeatedly. He came to the town this time just to buy medicine, and the medicine in the town's pharmacy was not as good as the one Zhang Xingjiu brought with him. With these, many lives of the wounded and sick could be saved.
Zhang Xingjiu took out a booklet from his arms and handed it over. "Take this too. This is something I researched recently. You should be able to use it. I wanted to give it to you earlier, but unfortunately I didn't get in touch with you."
He took it and flipped it open. The contents were basically the same as the one given before, all of which were some folk remedies for treating various injuries and illnesses. However, the last part was a little different. "Allicin? What is this?"
"Like penicillin, it has a strong antibacterial effect. It can inhibit a variety of Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative rods at extremely low concentrations. It also has inhibitory effects on molds, viruses, protozoa, pinworms, etc. It has obvious inhibitory effects on Escherichia coli and Shigella dysenteriae. The most valuable thing is that it is relatively easy to make using traditional methods, and the raw materials are not difficult to obtain."
Allicin was discovered from garlic by Italian chemist Cavallido, American chemist Cabarete and others in 1944. Subsequently, Swiss Nobel Prize winning chemists Stru and Zeubeck conducted further research in 1951 and found that allicin is a product produced by the decomposition of alliin in garlic by alliinase.
When garlic is not cut, the alliin in the cytoplasm and the alliinase in the cell fluid do not interfere with each other. Once the cells are destroyed, alliinase will break down alliin to produce allicin.
After World War II, allicin gradually became a broad-spectrum antibiotic with multiple effects such as anti-inflammatory, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, inhibiting platelet aggregation, preventing cancer and antiviral, etc. It has been widely used in medical, agricultural, food and other fields.
Now Zhang Xingjiu has brought out allicin, which can effectively complement penicillin and help them reduce more losses.
The traditional manufacturing process is relatively simple. The first step is the garlic paste method. Cut the garlic heads into small pieces, put them in a bottle, add appropriate amount of water, and place them in a dark place for 5-7 days. Stir once a day until the garlic paste becomes a polysaccharide. After filtering, mix the garlic paste with water and store it at low temperature.
The other method is a little more complicated. Mix a certain proportion of garlic and honey and crush them into a paste. Pour it into a glass bottle and seal it. After leaving it for 7 days, take 10 ml orally daily and dilute it with warm water when drinking.
If conditions are sufficient, you can also adopt the third method. Peel the garlic, wash and dry it, then slice the garlic and grind it into powder. Put the garlic powder in a bottle, add alcohol and soak it for 2-3 days. Finally, filter the soaked garlic and keep the extract.
Add a certain amount of water to the allicin extract to dilute the solution, then heat the diluted solution to concentrate the allicin in the extract, add sodium chloride to the concentrated solution to precipitate other components, and finally dry the precipitated allicin to obtain relatively pure allicin.
Chen Shukang took a quick look and felt that these methods were not difficult to use. Honey might be a little hard to find, but garlic was everywhere. Farmers in the mountains liked to plant some in front of and behind their houses, so it was easy to collect.
Thinking of the great role played by penicillin before, his face flushed with excitement, "Teacher, you are helping us in our time of need again. This is what we need most now!"
This information was so important that he immediately changed his action plan. He left two people to continue purchasing supplies in the town, while he returned to the main force overnight with the booklet, handed in the information, and tried to start producing allicin according to the method in the booklet as soon as possible.
He had full faith in Zhang Xingjiu's ability. Since the teacher said that this thing worked, it must be useful. If it was produced one day earlier, more lives of the wounded and sick could be saved. This could not be delayed.
After waking up in the morning, Zhang Xingjiu continued to go down the river, entered the Yangtze River and arrived in Wuhan. He got off the boat and stayed for a few days. He communicated with the local education community and did some similar preparations. Then he got on the boat again and finally returned to Shanghai.
He has been running around for the past few years and has not brought his wife and children with him. He has not seen his two children for a long time. Unexpectedly, as soon as he got home, he saw someone coming to complain, "Ma Gong, please take care of your good grandson. Look at what he has done!"
Huh? What's going on? Could my child have become a bad boy?
(End of this chapter)
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