Watching Nutrition | Information for a Healthy Life

The word oregano is derived from Greek and ancient Greek words rigani or oros (mountain) + ganos (joy) or “Joy of the Mountains.” In Greece the scent of oregano fills the air when you hike hillsides in summer. The pretty blooming plants grow aggressively, helping to hold the oil on slopes and for centuries providing a popular medicinal herb. The plant thrives on the mineral rich hillsides, and from a purely nutritional point of view it packs an incredible variety of common and trace minerals. It is particularly high in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, boron, potassium, manganese and natural non-toxic iron. It’s vitamin content includes niacin, beta carotene, C, K, riboflavin, and thiamine.

A Spicy Spice

Oregano is a spicy herb, warm, even hot in taste, with a hint of bitterness. Many herbs have this quality, but in an herb garden other scents are often overpowered by the aroma of oregano. There seems to be a natural mechanism even in many animals where they will change their eating habits while ill, choosing more bitter plants. Physicians over the centuries have noticed this and experimented with the use of these herbs, over time building a knowledge base for natural medicine.

Oregano, Remember we are talking about true species Wild Oregano, is know to have been prescribed by ancient Greek physicians for:

• trauma
• wounds
• headaches
• lung disorders like asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, sinusitis, and cough
• seizures
• bites
• congestive heart failure
• treating poison by narcotics and hemlock

Middle age Islamic doctors use the herb and oil and in Chinese medicine, oregano is used for colds, fevers, vomiting, dysentery, jaundice, and itchy skin.

Historical Europe and Oregano

Much of the ancient herbal knowledge was passed down, copied and sometimes improved on by European authors. Belgian herbalist Rembert Dodoens continued the work of Leonhart Fuchs with the herbal Cruydeboeck in 1554. Henry Lyte in 1558 published an English translation called A New Herbal, or Historie of Plants. (check out that link if you enjoy reading old english) A 1583 Latin translation of Cruydeboeck, Stirpium historiae pemptades sex, was the chief source for John Gerard’s Herball or General Historie of Plants. Controversy surrounded Gerard’s pirating of other translators and authors in this book, but it became a very popular reference for it’s detailed descriptions, usefulness and high level of splendid prose.

Sniffle and Headache Fighter

John Gerard suggested oregano as a remedy “against cold diseases of the braine and head.” 18th century herbalist, K’Eogh recognized its “hot, dry nature,” today it is known to act by heating and desiccating bacterial and fungi cells.

It’s a wonder that a relatively small number of western herbalists continue to rely on oregano for all it’s many known uses; though it is still often given for external use treating muscle and joint aching, arthritis, headaches, toothache, and it’s vapors are inhaled to improve lung condition.

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