Common Thyme ( Motherwort. Pine thyme )
Perennial herbaceous plant 35-80 cm high with a strong aromatic smell. Stems are tetrahedral, straight, branched, covered with soft hairs, often reddish. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, oblong or ovate with an entire blade. The flowers are purple, small, quite numerous in the axils of the bracts, collected at the end of the branches and stem in small corymbs, forming a paniculate inflorescence. The rhizome is branched with adventitious, thin roots. The dry fruit of four nuts. Blooms in July-August.
It grows in dry places, in clearings, forest edges, among bushes, on hillsides.
Medicinal raw materials are the tops of flowering plants collected during flowering (preferably in the initial flowering period). The smell of raw materials is aromatic, the taste is bitter-spicy, slightly astringent, tart. The grass is dried in the air, in the shade or in dryers. The shelf life of dry raw materials is 2 years.
Dry herb oregano contains 0.12 to 0.7% essential oil. The essential oil is the main active principle of the plant and contains thymol, bicyclic sesquiterpenes, free alcohols, geranyl acetate and tannins.
The therapeutic use of oregano is based on its ability to have a calming effect on the central nervous system, increase the secretion of the digestive, bronchial and sweat glands, increase intestinal motility and have some analgesic and deodorizing effect. In the form of an infusion, oregano is used as a diaphoretic for colds, lack of appetite, low acidity, as a choleretic agent for intestinal atony, spasms in the stomach, inflammation of the liver, jaundice, constipation, for various disorders of neuropsychic activity, for acute and chronic bronchitis (as a means of enhancing the secretion of bronchial glands), with whooping cough and increased sexual excitability.
In folk medicine, oregano herb is used internally as a diaphoretic (for colds), expectorant, for rheumatism, paralysis, from suffocation, for atony (lethargy) of the intestine and low acidity, as an antispasmodic, hemostatic and sedative for women’s diseases, bleeding, and later fainting, with general weakness, mental illness, as a sedative and to raise the general tone of the body, with increased sexual excitability, with cancer.
Externally, oregano is used for headaches and insomnia (they wash their hair with a decoction), for scrofula, toothache, inflammation of the oral mucosa, pharynx, pharynx; with all this, there is a decrease in soreness, anti-inflammatory and deodorizing effect.
In the form of dry (grass powder) and wet compresses, oregano is used for scrofula, boils, abscesses, various kinds of rashes.
This plant is indicated for hypertension, atherosclerosis, kidney and liver diseases and as a diuretic.
Application
Decoction: 15 g per 200 ml; 1 st. spoon 3 times every day with lethargy of the intestines. –
Infusion: 2 teaspoons of chopped herbs are poured into a glass of boiled water, closed with a lid, insisted for 15-20 minutes, filtered. Drink warm 15-20 minutes before meals half a glass 3-4 times every day for epilepsy (treatment for three years), low acidity and other diseases.
Outwardly – a decoction for compresses and poultices: 3-4 tbsp. spoons of grass are poured with water until a mushy mass is formed, wrapped (in a warm form) in a cloth and applied to a sore spot.
Oregano tea is prepared from 2 teaspoons of finely chopped herbs, poured with 2 cups of boiling water and drunk throughout the day the entire portion.
Oregano oil: a handful of finely chopped herbs is poured into 0.5 liters of Provence (or sunflower) oil, insisted for 8 hours, filtered and squeezed. Cotton wool soaked in oil is placed on the aching tooth; inside use 2-5 drops.
Mix 1: oregano herb – 1 part, coltsfoot – 2 parts, marshmallow root – 2 parts. Take 4 teaspoons of this mixture for 2 cups of boiling water, use half a cup 4 times every day.
Mix 2: oregano grass – 1 part, coltsfoot – 2 parts, raspberries – 2 parts. Brewed and consumed, as well as the first mixture.
Baths: 50 g of herbs per bucket of water or 100 g of herbs per 2 liters of boiling water; the resulting infusion is added to bath water.
And also pay attention to the article Materynka. Pine thyme