## 4 Discussion  
### Comparison of the Biochemical Properties and Antioxidant Activity of Garlic and BG Extracts  
Regarding the biochemical properties of garlic and BG aged for different durations, we discovered that during the aging process from 0 to 35 days of aging, the pH decreased from 6.19 down to 3.52. According to [PERSON] et al. (2018), BG aged in an environment at 70 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 90% relative humidity for 35 days exhibited decreasing pH from 6.33 to 3.74. [PERSON] et al. (2018) conducted a 90-day garlic aging experiment, and the pH of the garlic decreased from 7.1 to 4.1. [PERSON] et al. (2018) analyzed giant BG, giant fresh garlic, normal BG, and normal fresh garlic and discovered their pH values to be 3.77, 5.97, 3.94, and 6.10, respectively. [PERSON] et al. (2018) investigated aged garlic in a high-temperature environment and observed a similar trend; they deduced that the main reason for the decrease in pH during the aging process was the Maillard reaction, which increases the amount of organic acid, thus reducing the pH. During the aging process, the water content of the fresh garlic decreased from 77.5% to 30.78%, which was similar to the reduction from 64.21% to 29.88% in the study by [PERSON] et al. (2018). Although the experimental materials were placed in a highly humid environment, the garlic's water content was lost to the environment during the heating process. The present study demonstrated that as the aging process progressed, the allicin content decreased; from the 25 th day, allicin was not detected. The optimized aging time of 25 days is compatible with the mitigation of allicin content to undetectable. This result is the same as that of [PERSON] et al. (2018), who conducted a 90-day garlic aging experiment. [PERSON] et al. (2018) reported that during the high-temperature aging process, the allicin content of fresh garlic was 3.18 g/kg and increased to 3.53 g/kg after 2 days of aging but was undetectable from 5 days of aging. Thus, under high temperature, allicin was released into the environment and likely transformed into allin or other compounds ([PERSON] et al., 2018; [PERSON] et al., 2018). The total phenol content increased as the aging duration increased, reaching a maximum after 35 days of aging. In their studies on BG aging, scholars have reported that total phenol content was positively correlated with the antioxidant activity of the test material ([PERSON] et al., 2018; [PERSON] et al., 2018; [PERSON] et al., 2018). [PERSON] et al. (2018) maintained that after a 35-day garlic aging process, the total phenol content was 13.91 mg GAE/g, far lower than the 25.81-58.33 mg GAE/g determined using BG extract in the present study. [PERSON] et al. (2018) aged garlic at 72, 75, and 78 \({}^{\circ}\)C, discovering that the total phenol content increased as the aging duration increased. [PERSON] et al. (2018) discovered that the total phenol content in BG extract was approximately 4-10 times higher than that in fresh garlic. These results are in general agreement with the results obtained in the present study; that is, the total phenol content of BG extract is higher that than in fresh garlic. The contents of free amino acids and total amino acids both decreased as aging duration increased. Further exploration revealed that in regression analysis--with the total amino acid content represented as X and the content of arginine, asparagine, and glutamic acid represented as Y--the following relationships were obtained: Y = 0.61X - 31.15, Y = 0.20X - 37.16, and Y = 0.03X + 2.94, respectively, with r\({}^{2}\) = 0.99, 0.96, and 0.98 (Figure 2). Therefore, highly positive linear relationships between total amino acid content and arginine, asparagine, and glutamic acid contents were determined. Aspartic, an amino acid related to aspartate, was not highly positively correlated with total amino acid content; this relationship was described by Y = 0.03X + 9.46, with r\({}^{2}\) = 0.44. This finding has not been reported in the literature.