CHAPTER 30: Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Thyme is a common household plant with many varieties with a panel of strong odours and flavours from lemon-like to camphorous. It is used for culinary, medicinal, cosmetic and ornamental purposes. Thyme was used in medicine and for embalmment by the Sumerians and Egyptians and is still used in ethnomedicine today. Traditionally associated with supporting the respiratory system and helping with pulmonary diseases. Research, primarily from Europe, the Far East and Middle East, has shown that thyme possesses, via its bioactive constituents, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive/analgesic and chemopreventive/anti-cancer, hepato-protective and anti-microbial properties.