THYME (Thymus vulgaris), Dr. Abhay Kumar Pati, Best Nutrition, Hayward, CA USA

July 8, 2010 - PRLog -- THYME
(Thymus vulgaris), Dr.Abhay Kumar  Pati, Best Nutrition, Hayward, CA, USA

ORIGIN
Mediterranean

PART OF PLANT USED
Leaves

DESCRIPTION
Thyme is native to the Mediterranean region. Thanks to its medicinal and culinary virtues, it can now be found wherever the winters are mild. This low-growing, creeping plant is thought to have spread from its original range well into northern Europe along with the conquering Roman soldiers. There is some controversy as to how the plant got its scientific name, ‘Thymus.’ Some say it comes from the Greek word, ‘thumos,’ or courage, which the plant was believed to convey to the person who drank a tea made of it. Others say it comes from a similar Greek word which means “to fumigate,” a use to which the plant was also put in ancient days.
In English herbalism, thyme was the traditional cure for all manner of ills affecting the lungs. Culpepper called thyme “a noble strengthener of the lungs, as notable are as grows, nor is there a better remedy growing for whooping cough. It purgeth the body of phlegm and is an excellent remedy for shortness of breath. It is so harmless you need not fear the use of it.” His statement is reiterated by most of the classic English herbalists. In traditional European herbalism, thyme was used to treat respiratory infections, laryngitis, tonsillitis, sore throats, irritable coughs, bronchitis, whooping cough, asthma and catarrhal coughs. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agrees with Culpepper as to the plant’s harmlessness, rating it “generally recognized as food safe.”
The actions of the plant include carminative, antimicrobial, antispasmodic, expectorant, astringent, and anthelmintic. Chemicals contained in the herb responsible for these actions include a volatile oil composed of thymol, carvacrol, cineole, borneol, geraniol, linalool, bornyl and linalyl acetate, thymol methyl ether and alpha pinene. Its flavonoids include apigenin, luteolin, thymonin, and naringenin. Also included are labiatic acid, caffeic acid and tannins.
One of the plant’s chief medicinally active ingredients is the crystalline phenol called thymol. First isolated in 1720, it was later studied and found to be a rather amazing substance, powerfully antiseptic, both internally and externally. To make matters better, it is an effective analgesic or painkiller. Early on, thymol was shown to kill bacteria on contact and therefore is found in surgical dressings and disinfectants for everything from wounds to surgical theaters. Thymol and the plant that contains it were used to kill bacteria, and this tradition continues.
Thyme was used by the Greeks to fumigate, and some say it was used specifically to fumigate sickrooms. Though modern physicians tend to discredit herbal medicine, the ancient custom of burning thyme in a sickroom would have been efficacious. Thymol released into the air by burning the herb would make the patient’s attendants less likely to contract his illness if it were bacterial in nature. Sage and rosemary, close relations of thyme, were also burned in sickrooms, jails, churches and public halls to stop the spread of diseases such as “jail fever.” These plants were being used as bactericides long before bacteria had even been discovered.

TRADITIONAL AND OTHER THERAPEUTIC USES
•    stimulates the movement of mucus out of the chest cavity
•    provides antimicrobial chemicals to kill infection (antifungal and antibacterial)
•    acts as an antispasmodic, which helps with the pain associated with coughing
•    gargle for laryngitis, tonsillitis and sore throats in general
•    expectorant

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Dr.Abhay Kumar Pati, Best Nutrition Products, Inc.Hayward, California, USA and Biotechayur, Odisha, India manufacturer of a large number of vitamins, minerals, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbal, nutritional supplements, raw materials of standardized molecules of plants and fruit extracts. Dr. Abhay Kumar Pati, is a physician, author, entrepreneur and industrialist based in the United States, having ventures across the globe. Dr.Pati states that many of our health problems and diseases can be prevented, treated well with lifestyle, food habits and nutritional supplements. Most of the fruit contain ascorbic acid, enzymes, bioflavonoids, rich in minerals like chromium, potassium, and magnesium etc as well as B vitamins to amino acids.