The Chronicle

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1969— Onions may be lifesavers, according to a team of doctors at a British university.

They have discovered an amazing medical property of the onion which could lead to a new drug to fight one of the biggest killer diseases — coronary thrombosis.

For onions, fried or boiled, raise the blood’s capacity to dissolve away deadly internal blood clots in the legs are treated with garlic and onion.

The discovery was made by a team of four doctors at Newcastle University’s department of medicine. It came after a chance remark by a patient that in France horses suffering from blood clots in the legs are treated with garlic and onion.

The doctors decide to see if onions worked on humans.

Blood clots caused because of a change in one of the blood’s chemicals into a substance called fibrin which forms a fine mesh “scaffolding” for the clot to form round.

The blood of a healthy person has the capacity to dissolve this fibrin away, dispersing the clot. But fatty, fried foods reduce this activity. To test the onions, the doctors first gave a fatty breakfast to 22 hospital patients. Three hours later the patients’ anti-clotting powers were reduced.

On another day the patients were given the same breakfast but this time two ounce portions of onion, some fried and some boiled were added.

After two hours, the anti-blood clotting capacity had gone up an average of one-and-a-half times the original figure.