A CULINARY DELIGHT AND A HEALTH AIDER – THE DUAL ROLE OF THE ‘STINKING ROSE’ By Nikolin Svetlana For more than 5,000 years, garlic (Allium sativum) has been present in many cultures around the world. The home of this amazing plant and super-food of centuries, is central Asia in so-called 'Garlic Crescent' which stretches from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan to Turkmenistan and Iran where wild garlic have been present from ancient times.