Origanum vulgare – Oregano, pot marjoram
Labiatae – Mint family
The raw material is the oregano herb – Herba Origani and oregano oil – Origani oleum. The herb is harvested at the start of blooming (by cutting leafy, blooming shoot tips) and dried in natural conditions. The oil is obtained from the dried or fresh herb through steam distillation.
Oregano – effects and use:
An annual with a creeping, thin rhizome with stolons. The stem is erect or rising from the bottom, 20-80 cm in height, covered with soft hairs, often crimson-colored, with short shoots in the angles of leaves at the bottom, and blooming branches at the top. The leaves are widely ovate or elliptic-lanceolate, with short petioles. The lamina has shallow remote serrations or almost entire, ciliate edges, few hairs on veins on the bottom. The flowers are clustered at shoot tips into a multi-flowered panicle, the bracts are generally crimson-purple, longer than the calyx. The calyx itself is tubular, with hairs on the throat, 5 crenates, the corolla is pink or pink-lilac, two-lobed, the lower is three-lobed. Some specimens form only bisexual flowers, larger and with protruding stamen and carpel style; others form only female flowers, smaller with protruding style. There are 4 stamens, didynamous, with anthers opening from the base. The fruit is a mericarp, ovate and smooth. The plant has glandular hairs and an intense smell.
Oregano blooms from July to September (sometimes sooner). It is found in sparse forests, bushes, on edges of forests, dry hills, slopes, rocky terrains. Very common throughout Poland, from the mountains to low mountainside forests. The dried herb has a similar color to the natural color; the flowers are pale pink, strong aroma, spicy and bitter taste.
Oregano – effects and use:
The herb contains up to 1% of oil (mainly carvacrol, geranyl acetate, p-cymene, thymol), sesquiterpenes, catechin, phenolic acids (i.a. rosmarinic acid and its depsides) and flavonoids (derivatives of luteolin, apigenin and diosmetin). Herb extracts and oil have disinfectant, expectorant (thymol, carvacrol) and choleretic activity. They are used for improving digestion, as a mouthwash, for throat gargling and inhalations in upper respiratory inflammations, and the oil is also used for baths, mainly in dermatitis and as a mouthwash.
PL