Origanum vulgare herb, steam distilled, from Spain.
Oregano is the nuclear bomb of essential oils when it comes to microbes! Two living things survived the appalling nuclear bomb tests of the 1950s - cockroaches and yeasts. Nonetheless, researchers at Georgetown University proved that oil of wild oregano completely destroyed yeasts in petri dishes.
Colour: Pale Yellow
Aroma: Herbaceous, sharp.
Possible Uses: Coughs, digestion. [Julia Lawless, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1995), 188.] A powerful anti viral, origanum in synergy with clove and other essential oils removes petroleum by-products from the body through the lymph nodes.- TTF
Constituents: Carvacrol, thymol, cymene, caryophyllene, pinene, bisabolene, linalool, borneol, geranyl acetate, linalyl acetate, terpinene. [Julia Lawless, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Essential Oils (Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1995), 188.]
Safety Information: Skin irritant, mucous membrane irritant, can cause skin irritation. [Robert Tisserand, Essential Oil Safety (United Kingdom: Churchill Livingstone, 1995), 156.]
Cautions: Origanum essential oil is both a dermal irritant and a mucous membrane irritant. Although many practitioners, medical and alternative, "prescribe" oregano oil for every ailment under the sun, DO NOT PUT DIRECTLY ON THE SKIN!!!!
DO NOT INGEST WITHOUT THE SUPERVISION OF A REGISTERED AROMATHERAPY HEALTH PRACTITIONER. If you need to sterilize a wound, use lavender or chamomile. If you need to strerilize your digestive system, you need help and there are safer ways than oregano, which should be a last resort for colonized organs.
Photo thanks to m.dolores paderne sa…, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
