Plant science for plant people.

Wild garlic, the ramsons that carpets shady spring woodland, calmed inflamed gut tissue in the lab when its leaves were steeped in half water, half alcohol.

Researchers made leaf extracts several ways and tested them on isolated mouse colon exposed to a bacterial toxin. Every version was dominated by sulfur compounds, mainly methiin and alliin, the chemistry behind that garlicky smell. The half-alcohol extract pulled out the most polyphenols, the plant's antioxidants, and it dialed back three inflammation genes. Water extracts ran heavier on sugars and amino acids instead. Nobody has tried this in a living animal or a person yet, so for now it's a lead that backs up an old European habit of eating ramsons for stomach health.

Ramsons is exactly the kind of local food plant the rest of the world is losing track of. A review this week finds farms and dinner plates narrowing onto a few big crops over the past century, with local varieties and the know-how for using them fading fast. Genebanks store seed and botanic gardens grow living plants, and for years they've worked apart. They've now teamed up as the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants to keep that diversity growing and in use.

The lab has caught up with what foragers knew for generations. A patch of ramsons under your trees keeps the plant going and the reason people picked it.