Garlic belongs to the onion family and has several health benefits. A garlic bulb consists of about a dozen compactly arranged storage leaves known as cloves.

A bulb is an underground structure comprised of thickened leaf bases. Each garlic clove is made up of just one leaf base, unlike onions, which are composed of numerous leaf layers. The commonly known garlic skins are protective garlic sheaths that don’t swell during the garlic cloves growth, but dry and form protective wrappers which promote the garlic’s bulb vegetative propagation.

Each individual clove is covered with a fairly tough skin then all the cloves are covered with an outer skin or sheath. The number of cloves in the bulb varies depending on the cultivation, variation, the size, color, and the pungency.

Dry sheath and inner epidermal peels taken out from a garlic clove were stained using natural dye and observed under a foldscope. Nucleus and stomata were clearly marked in inner peel cells, but lacked in outer sheath cells.

Cells from Inner epidermal peel of a garlic clove

Cells from the outer dry skin (sheath) of a garlic clove

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