What is the reason behind the smell of onion and garlic?
A knife breaks the cells. A tooth crushes them. That is how it begins. Inside the plant, things were kept apart-An enzyme called alliinase in one place-Sulfur compounds-like alliin, in another.
They cannot touch.
When the wall is broken, they meet, a reaction happens then-It is fast and it is violent--Unstable molecules are made. Garlic makes allicin. The onion makes the thing that stings the eyes, the syn-propanethial-S-oxide. These compounds are not built to last-They break down into smaller, lighter pieces. Things like diallyl disulfide. These bits of sulfur float into the air. They get in your nose and that is the smell. It is the plant’s chemical answer to being destroyed. It is a simple, hard fact.
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