Thyme - medicinal properties and contraindications, application, photo

Many medicinal plants are recognized as official medicine. After all, some crops have healing properties and help prevent and cure (as part of complex therapy) common and rare diseases. And there are medicinal herbs that, due to their taste and aromatic qualities, have earned their place not only in folk, official medicine, but have also gained popularity in the culinary field! Thyme is considered one of these plants. Many people are familiar with the fragrant aroma of this plant. But does everyone know that thyme has medicinal properties? This plant has many positive qualities. We will talk about the properties and characteristics of thyme in this article.

Photo of the plant

The plant looks like a wild flower. Small blue, lilac or light blue flowers make it stand out against the background of the rest of the grass at the edge. Photo for reference.

Thyme (thyme) has long been a favorite plant among people. It can be found in many places, so people collect it themselves to make medicines and culinary additives. Look at the photo before collecting so as not to be mistaken.

Botanical description and range of thyme

A perennial with woody stems on which herbaceous branches are located. The height of the plant can reach 35 cm. The size and shape of the hard leaves varies depending on the type: from round to linear-oblong. The edges of the leaf blades are usually entire, less often jagged. In the summer months, flowers appear collected in inflorescences in white, pink or purple shades. After the flowering period ends, fruits appear - seed pods.

The subshrub is widely distributed in Russia and Central Asia. Usually settles on sandy soils. Prefers open places, forest glades, coniferous and deciduous forests. Due to its unpretentiousness, thyme is found even in North Africa.

Useful substances in thyme

In this section, we decided to look at the chemical composition of the plant in order to understand how it can be effectively used in folk and regular medicine. Knowing the substances included is also useful for those who have individual intolerances and allergies.

We will highlight only the dominant components, since the full composition will be very large and not informative. The basis for the benefits of thyme lies in organic acids, so let’s start with them.

Complex of organic acids. The plant contains ursolic acid, which increases muscle tone and speeds up metabolism. You can also find caffeic acid in its composition, which reduces stress and gives a person vigor. Oleanolic acid accelerates complex cleansing of the body.
Vitamin C. Also called ascorbic acid, it stimulates the development of immunity and fights the penetration of viruses into the body.
Minerals and salts. Normalize the functioning of the intestines and gastrointestinal tract.
Thymol. It is an element of thyme essential oil and has a strong antibacterial effect.
Flavonoids. They strengthen the walls of blood vessels, get rid of blood plaques, and normalize blood pressure.

Thanks to such a rich composition, the plant is actively used in medicine. In the next section we will touch on the medicinal properties of this healing plant.

Medicinal properties

The rich composition in itself does little to attract the average lover of natural medicine. Much more important is how these components accumulate and help a person cope with illnesses. Here we will touch on the practical benefits of this plant in more detail.

Note that thyme is used not only in medicine; the absence of symptoms of disease does not mean that you cannot brew tea with thyme, for example, or add it to a confectionery masterpiece.

Reduces pain. The decoction is often recommended for those who do not want to take pills for headaches or stomach pain.
Clears the stomach of toxins. Tea is useful for drinking for people who periodically consume alcohol and tobacco.
Fights viruses and mild strains of bacteria. This happens due to organic acids, including vitamin C.
Expectorant properties. Thyme, along with sage, is an excellent sore throat remedy.
Calms the nerves. In stressful situations, it is useful to drink tea with thyme; it restores mental sobriety, normalizes the functions of the central nervous system, and gives strength to implement plans.

Each person on this list will find something important and necessary for themselves. But it is worth highlighting the unique properties of thyme to treat narrowly targeted diseases of men, women and children.

For men. Many middle-aged men suffer from sexual weakness or dysfunction. The plant normalizes blood function and its flow to the genitals. The course is not quick; within 2-3 months you will need to replace classic black tea with tea with natural thyme.
For women. Women who experience severe pain during menstruation should also pay attention to thyme essential oil. The plant, as noted earlier, actively affects the blood and nervous system.
For children. Little children under 7 years old do not sleep well, the problem is physical growth and hormonal activity. Tea with this herb before bed will give your child a restful and healthy sleep.

The medicinal properties of this plant will reveal themselves even better if you turn to the recipes of the folk health resort, which we’ll talk about right now, fix a few recipes for yourself, they will come in handy.

Use in folk medicine

Folk remedies differ from regular industrial drugs in that their formulation was developed not by pharmaceutical scientists, but by ordinary people who once knew everything about herbs.

When there were no pharmacies and clinics, people were forced to look for ways to get rid of diseases. And they found them. For many centuries, treatment methods have been passed on from mouth to mouth, reaching us and ending up on the Internet.

For a cold. Organic acids act as antibiotics and antiseptics, they cope with bacteria, suppress viral activity and the spread of fungi.
For constipation/diarrhea. Creeping thyme regulates the functioning of the digestive tract. A decoction from the plant does not strengthen or liquefy stool; it allows the body to independently return to normal functioning.
For the treatment of headaches. Not all of us prefer to take pills. Tea with thyme regulates blood pressure, relieves a person from headaches, and not just once, but for a long time.
Against insomnia. Thyme, as mentioned earlier, calms the nervous system and allows you to fall asleep even under serious stress; you can sometimes drink it during pregnancy.
To maintain immunity. There is nothing more important for our health than immunity. If it is not there, then diseases will pour in like from a cornucopia. Any recipes - decoctions, infusions, teas - will help support it.

One can argue endlessly about the effectiveness of certain methods, but it was folk remedies that allowed humanity to survive in times when people died from simple infections. Let's look at how our ancestors used the beneficial properties of the plant and follow their example. It definitely won't get any worse.

Folk recipes

The recipes that we will provide you with in the collections have proven themselves to be simple and healthy. Of course, there are many more of them; every single grandmother has a recipe for a decoction or tincture that no one else knows about.

Folk recipes change over the years, their preparation is simplified, some components are replaced by others. Traditional medicine is a living organism that does not give right or wrong answers. Everything is tested by trial and error, everyone will find their own recipe.

Tea

Making herbal tea is a simple and straightforward method of introducing medicinal drinks. This is a good place to start if you are new to herbalism.

Boil half a liter of water. It is better to take filtered water, not from the tap.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of chopped dried thyme to it. This is a little more than black tea would require, but the tea has a slightly stronger concentration of flavor.
Leave to brew for 6-10 minutes. This time will be enough for the thyme to release all the beneficial substances in the composition to the water.
Drink it as if it were tea. You can drink it with sugar, with sweets, with anything. But remember that sugar in excess amounts harms metabolism.

Just because the recipe is extremely simple does not mean that thyme tea is a bad or ineffective product. Brew it, enjoy the taste, the benefits of this tea will be noticeable very soon.

Infusion

The infusion takes a little longer to prepare, but not a bit more difficult. This is already a completely medicinal product, so there is no need to drink it with confectionery products.

Pour water at room temperature into a half-liter container.
Add 4-5 tablespoons (heaped) of dried thyme.
Leave the infusion in a dry room where direct sunlight does not penetrate.
After 2 weeks you can drink small amounts daily. We recommend it to combat gastrointestinal diseases.

The infusion is a product that has not been subjected to heat treatment, therefore, it has retained its unique qualities 100%.

Decoction

Decoctions should be used to combat infectious diseases. The essence is the same as that of the infusion, only preparing a decoction involves boiling water.

Pour one liter of water into the pan.
Add 5 tablespoons of thyme to the water.
Bring everything to a boil to form a decoction.
As soon as the water boils, remove the pan from the heat and cool naturally to a temperature comfortable for drinking.

In fact, a decoction is a cross between tea and infusion. The beneficial properties are partially lost, but due to cooking the medicine becomes more concentrated. This is an ideal treatment for colds and flu.

Alcohol tincture

Alcohol tinctures are separate medicines with their own specific consumption. Tinctures with alcohol are contraindicated for children and people suffering from alcohol dependence. But for everyone else, this alcohol infusion is an excellent cure for ARVI and other infections.

Take half a liter of alcohol or vodka. It is preferable to take medical alcohol.
You need to pour as much dry thyme into the alcohol as you can get. The bigger, the better.
The finished substance must be left for 3-4 weeks so that the alcohol absorbs the benefits of the plant.
When the time comes, strain the infusion from the leaves.
You should take no more than one tablespoon at a time; you can add it to tea, coffee, and other drinks.

The alcohol tincture is distinguished by the maximum concentration of the chemical composition of the plant. Alcohol is a heating agent. Taken together, we get an antiviral drug that will give a head start to pharmaceutical drugs.

Growing from seeds

Thyme is grown from seeds. The seeds are very small and require a temperature of about + 15 °C to germinate. If we are going to plant it in the garden, we can grow thyme from seedlings. But most often the seeds are planted directly into the ground, since the sprouts are very thin and difficult to pick and replant.

Sowing and growing seedlings in stages

Time to sow thyme for seedlings: mid-March – April. It is better to start sowing seeds in March in containers or small pots.
Seeds are sown in boxes filled with fertile soil.
Sowing is carried out to a depth of 0.5 cm; you can lightly sprinkle the seeds with sand (it is better not to cover them with soil, as this plant germinates in the light).
Crops should be watered thoroughly and the substrate should be kept moist by spraying with a spray bottle. The seeds germinate fairly quickly.
The boxes are placed in a room protected from frost (greenhouse, on a warm balcony).
After 10-14 days, the first shoots appear. It is difficult to plant thyme seedlings - the seedlings are very thin.
Before planting in the ground, seedlings should be hardened off outdoors for several hours a day.
Grown seedlings are planted in the ground after the risk of frost ceases (in the second half of May) at a distance of 30 × 40 cm.
Seedlings must have enough water during the first growth phase. Once the plant is well established, there will be no problems with it. There should not be too much water; thyme does not tolerate excess water at all. It also does not need excessive fertilization.

Picking

Sowing directly into the ground

It is often practiced to plant thyme seeds in open ground.

When to plant thyme seeds in open ground? In the conditions of the central zone and Moscow region, you can sow seeds immediately in open ground, as soon as the ground warms up.

Sowing seeds directly into open ground is carried out to a depth of 0.5-1 cm in rows separated by approximately 40 cm. Sowing is best done in the spring (late April - early May) so that the plants have the opportunity to sprout and grow before the high summer months begin. temperatures and drought. The seedlings sprout quite quickly - after 10-15 days. In the beds, it is necessary to thin out the seedlings, leaving plants every 30 cm.

Pharmaceutical medicines based on thyme

Pharmaceutical companies are not overlooking good natural herbs. Therefore, in pharmacies you will find a lot of medicines for the treatment of diseases, and they will contain thyme or essential oil of the plant.

Chemical manipulations cannot create a complete analogue of a natural plant, so pharmacists are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but use what nature has invented.

Codelac broncho with thyme. A drug created to combat dry cough.
Pertussin. A popular cough syrup with an expectorant effect.
Licorice syrup with thyme (Coughstops). Another remedy for cough and upper respiratory tract diseases.
Thyme essential oil. The strongest concentrate that can be used to treat any respiratory diseases. Application: inhalations, compresses, addition to tea.
Dry thyme herb. If you do not have the opportunity or desire to collect and dry the herb yourself, you can prepare it in a pharmacy. This is just thyme, dried in industrial conditions without adding chemicals. It is no worse or better than what you can assemble yourself.

Industrial medicine focuses on the treatment of cough, but practically ignores other areas of application. Perhaps scientists have not yet come to objective conclusions about the treatment of gastrointestinal tract, nerves or erectile dysfunction.

Correct preparation

If you decide to independently prepare several bunches of this herb for the winter, then you will be interested in learning how to do this effectively, and how not to spoil the entire harvest. We will go through the collection, drying and storage procedure step by step.

If you are worried that something might not work out, then you are mistaken. It is enough to follow the elementary instructions, not to invent something that has already been invented. Compliance with the algorithm is a guarantee of success.

Collection

In fact, collecting thyme is not so difficult as not destroying it. Do not cut the plant at the root, this will disrupt its growth and assimilation. Take care of nature, and it will reciprocate.

Collection is carried out from mid-May to the end of August, during the flowering period.
The more flowers a plant has, the more fragrant and healthy it is.
If bees are flying around, then the harvest time is perfect and the plant is a honey plant.
Thyme should be collected in the afternoon, when all the dew has subsided.

Here are some simple assembly instructions. It’s not difficult to follow, and there shouldn’t be any problems. All you have to do is find a clearing where there will be a lot of it, and you can choose the best grass.

Drying

You can also dry your collection without any problems. There are only three recommendations that must be strictly followed.

Do not dry in the sun, the properties will be lost.
Stir while drying. This way you won't end up with rotten herbs.
Drying should be carried out in a dry room without condensation. Rotting is the biggest problem in this process.

If you follow these three postulates, you will end up with aromatic herbs from which you will prepare teas, infusions and decoctions.

Storage

It is preferable to store thyme in bunches, as it is preserved better this way.
Store it in a place where no one can crush it. Dry leaves can turn into dust if handled roughly.
Try to use everything you have prepared within a year. Fresh tea from the plant is better than one year old.

The finished dry collection has a delicious aroma that intensifies when rubbed. It's time to talk about sad things, about contraindications.

Kinds

The genus contains more than 200 species.

Within the species there are 2 subspecies:

vulgaris – nominative subspecies,
aestivus (Willk.) - known from Spain.

The most common:

Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum L.).
T. Marshall (Thymus marschallianus Willd.).
Some species are listed in the Red Book - T. beautiful (Thymus pulchellus) and T. Taliev (Thymus talijevii).

There are mainly 2 types used in cooking:

Common (Thymus vulgaris);
Lemon-scented (Thymus citriodorus).

Let's take a closer look at them.

Ordinary

Common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is a plant with rigid, erect stems, from which small, narrow, elliptical, gray-green leaves grow in pairs. The leaves are sometimes rusty-red below, the length does not exceed 5-10 mm. It blooms with pink and white flowers growing in a spiral at the ends of the branches, making the plant extremely attractive to insects, especially bees. It is characterized by a sharp, refreshing taste and spicy, bright aroma.

Common thyme, photo

Creeping

Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) is a low creeping evergreen shrub, reaching a height of 5 cm. This species is a dwarf plant, the lower part of the shoots becomes woody. Leaves and stems of inflorescences grow from woody stems. The tips of the thin creeping shoots that take root at the nodes are raised upward, creating a smooth and low mat.

In May, when purple inflorescences grow above the total mass of leaves, the plant gains approximately 10 cm in height. Blooms massively from late May to June. Then there are not so many inflorescences. The flower color is purple-pink, sometimes white flowers are found.

The leaves are small, numerous, and form a dense green carpet. During flowering, the plant likes full sun, but in later summer it likes some shade.

It does not make any special demands on the soil, although it loves poorer soils with some sand. Perennials are not fertilized. With age, like most creeping plants, thyme tends to grow. The only labor-intensive procedure is summer cutting of inflorescences; it is important to cut only the non-woody parts, because a plant that is cut too much will not grow back, leaving a dried hole on the green carpet.

The plant is completely frost-resistant, but in snowless, very cold, windy winters it may not survive without shelter. The species is ideal for turfing sunny, sandy areas where other plants cannot cope - for example, between pavement slabs.

Lemon-smelling

Lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus), sometimes called lemon thyme, is a cross of garden thyme and wild thyme. Grows up to 15 cm, green leaves. The name of the plant is given because of the characteristic lemon smell released by the leaves. It blooms in June with pink flowers collected in loose inflorescences that attract butterflies and bees. Growing is easy, and the lemon-scented thyme itself is an ideal plant for sodding and creating a decorative ground cover. Can be grown, for example, in rocky gardens.

Lemon-scented thyme, photo

Contraindications for use

Thyme does not have as many contraindications as commercial pharmaceutical preparations. However, there are strict conditions under which thyme should not be eaten or treated with it. Read this list carefully, otherwise this wonderful medicinal herb will only leave you with an unpleasant experience.

Medicines affect each person differently. In any case, monitor your condition after consuming thyme. If you start to feel itchy skin, heat or chills, then this plant is not suitable for you.

Do not use the herb if you have kidney or liver failure. Thyme has a slight diuretic effect, removes moisture from the body, and can provoke salt deposition.
For diseases of the thyroid gland.
For heart diseases. Thyme has an active effect on the blood; if the heart functions incorrectly, this effect can lead to arrhythmia and stroke.
With high acidity of the gallbladder and stomach. The acids in the plant will enhance the effect.

In general, there are not many contraindications; for the majority of people there are no barriers to eating thyme. However, it is always better to play it safe and study the likely consequences.

Conclusion

Thyme, also known as thyme, is a fragrant herb that has medicinal properties. In medicine, thyme is recommended as part of the complex treatment of diseases of the respiratory system, kidneys, gynecological problems, disorders of the heart and liver.

Infusion, tea or decoction of thyme improves health if the recommended dosages are followed. Ignoring medical recommendations can provoke allergic reactions and dysfunction of internal organs.

Author of the article:

Sokolova Nina Vladimirovna |
Herbalist Education: Diploma in General Medicine and Therapy received from the University named after N.I. Pirogov (2005 and 2006). Advanced training at the Department of Herbal Medicine at the Moscow People's Friendship University (2008). Our authors