Thyme

Thyme is a very popular delicate looking herb with a peculiar fragrance which is relished by many people in eggs, beans and vegetable dishes.



There are more than sixty different varieties of thyme including French thyme, orange thyme, lemon thyme and silver thyme. The word ‘thyme’ is derived from a Greek word which means courage. It was believed that the Roman soldiers took thyme baths to feel energized and prepare themselves for the battle and as a ritual woman used to knight a scarf with thyme placed on the embroidered bee.

Health benefits of thyme –

1. Thyme is considered as an excellent source of vitamin K, manganese and iron. It also has good amounts of calcium and dietary fiber. Since ages thyme is used as a natural medicine for various medical conditions like bronchitis, cough and chest congestion.
   
   
   
   It has antifungal and antiseptic qualities that helps destroy many forms of bacteria and fungus. Thyme has various volatile oil components like carvacolo, geraniol, borneol and thymol, out of which thymol is the most important.
    
   Thymol is the prime volatile oil present in the herb thyme and many of the health benefits are attributed to this component in thyme. Thymol is believed to protect and increase the healthy fats found in cell structures and cell membranes. To be precise, the amount of docosahexanoic acid that is an omega 3 fatty acid is increased in the kidney, brain and heart cell membranes when the dietary consumption of thyme is increased.
2. Thyme antioxidant capacity is increased by the variety of flavonoids present in thyme that includes apigenin, luteolin, naringenin, and thymonin. This along with the presence of manganese lists thyme as one of the high standing antioxidant food.
3. The volatile oil components from thyme also have antimicrobial property which can fight against a variety of bacteria and fungi including Bacillus subtilis, Staphalococcus aureus, Shigella sonnei and Escherichia coli. Many researches prove the age old preservative property of various herbs and spice. It is been proved that thyme and basil can protect the foods from microbial contamination thereby increasing the shelf life of the product. Moreover when foods are washed in the solution that contains thyme or basil essential oil (as low as 1%) reduced the number of Shigella to such an extent that they are difficult to detect.
   
   
   
   Thus it is a wise idea to use thyme or basil in food preparations especially the ones that are not cooked like salads to enhance flavor as well as increase the shelf like.