Origanum vulgare - wild marjoram

Origanum vulgare is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.6 m (2ft) by 0.8 m (2ft 7in) at a medium rate. It is hardy to zone (UK) 5 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from Jul to September, and the seeds ripen from Aug to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees, lepidoptera. It is noted for attracting wildlife. Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers dry or moist soil. The plant can tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure.

General: Perennial herb from creeping rhizome; stems erect, 30-70 cm tall, branched above, often with short axillary sterile branches below, somewhat hairy, 4-angled; culinary herb.
Leaves: All stem leaves; opposite, egg-shaped, 1-3 cm long, entire or nearly so, scattered hairy, minutely gland-dotted; stalks 3-5 mm long; gradually reduced toward the inflorescence.
Flowers: Inflorescence of several, axillary and terminal, panicle-like flower clusters; bracts elliptic or diamond- to egg-shaped, 3-5 mm long, often purple-tipped; corollas tubular, white to red-purple, 4-7 mm long, 2-lipped, the upper lip nearly entire, the lower lip 3-lobed; calyces 1-2.5 mm long, gland-dotted, sparsely hairy, short-bristly within, 13-veined; calyx teeth 5, lance-triangular or nearly egg-shaped, nearly equal in length, shorter than tube, generally purplish.
Fruits: Nutlets, 4 clustered together, egg-shaped, smooth.

Hazards
It should not be used medicinally by pregnant women though it is perfectly safe in small amounts for culinary purposes[254]. It should not be prescribed for pregnant women[238].

Uses
Edible Uses

Raw or cooked as a potherb[5, 52, 183].
Much of the commercially available dried oregano does not come from this plant but from a number of different, often unrelated plants[238]. These include Lippia graveolens, L. palmeri and Origanum syriacum[238].
Lore: Oregano is an important flavouring herb in Mediterranean cookery, and is often used dried rather than fresh[238].
Uses: The leaves are used as a flavouring for salad dressings, vegetables and legumes, and are frequently included in strongly flavoured dishes with chillies, garlic, onions etc[2, 13, 21, 27, 183, 238].

A herb tea is made from the dried leaves and flowering stems[183, 207, 238].

Other Uses

Essential oilfrom the plant is used as a food flavouring, in soaps and perfumery[115, 171]. The herb contains 0.15 - 0.4% essential oil[218] and makes good herbal pillows and baths[244]. The plant was formerly used as a strewing herb[201].
De-licer: The essential oil has also been used to kill lice, though some caution is advised since it can cause skin irritations[238].

A red or purple dye is obtained from the flowering tops[4, 7, 13, 100], it is neither brilliant nor durable[115].

The plant repels ants[46].

In Nepal, the dried leaves were burned to produce fragrant smoke (Manandhar 2002). [UAPDS]

Medicinal Uses
Oregano has been used as a culinary and medicinal herb for thousands of years. It has a beneficial effect upon the digestive and respiratory systems and is also used to promote menstruation[254].
Harvesting: The plant can be used fresh or dried - harvest the whole plant (but not the roots) in late summer to dry and store for winter use[244].' ^^'
The leaves and flowering stems are strongly antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative, cholagogue, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, stimulant, stomachic and mildly tonic[4, 7, 9, 21, 254].
Internal Use: The plant is taken internally in the treatment of colds, influenza, mild feverish illnesses, indigestion, stomach upsets and painful menstruation[238].

It is strongly sedative and should not be taken in large doses, though mild teas have a soothing effect and aid restful sleep[244].
Externally, oregano is used to treat bronchitis, asthma, arthritis and muscular pain[238].

This plant is one of the best natural antiseptics because of its high thymol content[7].

The essential oil is used in aromatherapy to treat the same kinds of complaints that the herb is used for[238].
Oregano is often used in the form of an essential oil that is distilled from the flowering plant[4]. A few drops of the essential oil, put on cotton wool and placed in the hollow of an aching tooth, frequently relieves the pain of toothache[4, 207].

Medicinal Parts: The medicinal parts are the oil extracted from the fresh or dried leaves through a process of steam distillation, the herb picked during the flowering season and freed from the thicker stems and dried, as well as the fresh flowering herb.
Characteristics: The plant has an aromatic scent, similar to Origanum majorana.
Production: Oregano consists of the above-ground parts of Origanum vulgare. It is harvested 5 cm above the ground during the flowering season and dried carefully on the field or under a roofed loft
ACTIONS AND PHARMACOLOGY
COMPOUNDS
Volatile oil (0.15-1.0%): chief components carvacrol (share 40-70%), gamma-terpinene (8-10%), p-cymene (5-10%), additionally alpha-pinene, myrcene, thymol. There are also strains with thymol, linalool + terpinene-4-ol, linalool, caryophyllene +germacren D, or germacren D as chief components
Flavonoids: including naringin
Caffeic acid derivatives: in particular, rosmaric acid (5%)
EFFECTS
The essential oil, which contains carvacrol, is antimicrobial in vitro
INDICATIONS AND USAGE
Unproven Uses: Oregano herb is used for respiratory disorders such "as coughs, inflammation of the bronchial mucous membranes and as an expectorantT In folk medicine, it is used for coughs, dyspepsia, painful menstruation, rheumatoid arthritis, scrofulosis, urinary tract disorders and as a diaphoretic.
Chinese Medicine: In China, Oregano is used for colds, fever, vomiting, dysentery, jaundice and malnutrition for children.
Homeopathy Uses: Oregano is used to increase sexual excitability.
PRECAUTIONS AND ADVERSE REACTIONS
No health hazards or side effects are known in conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.
DOSAGE
Mode of Administration: Oregano infusions and powders are used as teas, gargles and bath additives.
Preparation: For internal use, pour 250 ml boiling water over 1 heaped teaspoonful and strain after 10 minutes; the tea can be sweetened with honey. The unsweetened infusion is used as gargle and mouthwash. To use as a bath additive, pour 1 1 of water over 100 g drug, strain after 10 minutes and add to a full bath.
Daily Dosage: Tea: 1 cup several times a day. Powder: 0.5 to 1 dessertspoon 2 to 3 times daily with food.
Homeopathic Dosage: 5 to 10 drops, 1 tablet or 5 to 10 globules 1 to 3 times daily or 1 ml injection solution sc twice weekly (HAB34).
Storage: Store Oregano where it is protected from moisture and light.

Lore
There was a saying that marjoram would only grow on a grave if the dead person was happy (Wiltshire) (Cf DITTANY). People were wary of it in Portugal, for there was a saying there that if you use your nose to smell it, your nose would drop off. Always stroke it with your hand, and smell that (Jacob). A very strange belief of older times was that a tortoise fortifies itself with marjoram before starting a fight (Jacob). This probably came from another, even older, belief that the tortoise immediately made for marjoram when it had eaten a viper, to purge itself (Albertus Magnus). In Morocco, they apparently used to burn marjoram on the Midsummer fires, presumably as a censing agent. Midsummer marjoram was also kept as a medicine. Coughs are cured by burning the herb and inhaling the smoke, which will also cure eye diseases. The stalk is lit and the eye regions touched with the glowing tip. Jaundice was also treated like this (Westermarck).
Marjoram is much used for flavouring. For example, it is put into home-brewed ale to give it a flavour; freshly gathered flowering tops would be used for this (Rohde. 1936), though they actually become sweeter as they dry (Mabey. 1972). Another use was as a dye plant; made from the flowering tops it gives a dark reddish-brown colour, but it fades quickly (Rohde. 1936).
In medicine, the infusion is given for whooping cough, and is used as a mouthwash for inflammation of the mouth and throat (Flück). The Anglo-Saxon version of Apuleius also recommended it for coughs, by the simple treatment of eating the plant (Cockayne). Marjoram tea was a Wiltshire remedy against infection of the lungs and chest (Wiltshire); it was actually a general tonic, right up to the 19th century (Rohde. 1936). A tisane, or tincture, of marjoram will act as a sedative to prevent sea sickness (Leyel. 1937).
It has often been included in indigestion remedies, and widely used in that way (for example, see Argenti & Rose). Certainly, the decoction used to be an Irish remedy for indigestion and acidity (Egan). In the 18th century, Hill was prescribing an “infusion of the fresh tops [to] strengthen the stomach, and [it] is good againsy habitual colic”. A long time before Hill, the herbal of Rufinus advised: “Vinum decoctionis eius digestionem confortat; dolorem stomaci et intestinorum excludit” (Thorndike), which is virtually exactly the same.
The Pennsylvania Germans cured scofula by wearing marjoram roots as a necklace. They would dig the roots, cut them crosswise, and thread an odd number of pieces.The necklace had to be removed on the ninth day, and other pieces of root threaded on. This was repeated twice, and each time they had to be buried under the eaves (Fogel).

Though the native version, Origanum vulgare, of this well-known pot-herb is locally common in the British Isles on chalk and limestone and its varied medicinal virtues have been much publicised in the literature, folk records of its use are curiously almost wanting. In Kent (?) it was at one time gathered in large quantities in autumn. Some was made into a tea for drinking immediately as a prophylactic and the rest hung up in bunches to dry for winter use.207 On the Isle of Portland in Dorset it has the reputation of relieving headaches208 and in ‘Ulster’ a decoction has been drunk to counter indigestion and acidity.209 Otherwise it appears to have been essentially a remedy for horses. That pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) was widely known as ‘organ’, presumably a corruption ofOriganum, suggests that the latter largely took its place at least in English folk medicine.[MPFT]

Phytochemicals
Antifungal:
Aerial parts - Essential oil (linalool, and thymol as the main constituents; 42.0 and 25.1%) - 0.3–1,100 μg/ml-MICs Vs. C. glabrata. [Antifungal]

Wild Marjoram – Origanum vulgare [218]

Propogation
Seed - sow early spring at 10 - 13°c and only just cover the seed. Germination usually takes place within 2 weeks. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer. The seed can also be sown in situ in late spring. Division in March or October. Very easy, larger divisions can be planted out direct into their permanent positions. We have found that it is better to pot up the smaller divisions and grow them on in light shade in a cold frame until they are well established before planting them out in late spring or early summer. Basal cuttings of young barren shoots in June. Very easy. Harvest the shoots with plenty of underground stem when they are about 8 - 10cm above the ground. Pot them up into individual pots and keep them in light shade in a cold frame or greenhouse until they are rooting well. Plant them out in the summer.

Cultivation
Landscape Uses:Border, Container, Ground cover, Rock garden, Seashore. Requires a rather dry, warm, well-drained soil in full sun, but is not fussy as to soil type, thriving on chalk[1, 27]. Prefers slightly alkaline conditions[200]. Tolerates poor soils[24]. Dislikes wet soils[37]. Hardy to about -20°c[187]. Oregano has a long history of culinary and medicinal use and is often cultivated in modern gardens as a culinary herb, there are some named varieties[183, 187, 238, 244]. Plants growing near the sea have the most fragrance[7]. A good companion plant, improving the flavour of nearby plants[201]. The flowers are very attractive to bees and butterflies[5, 30]. A good companion for the cucumber family[14], it is beneficial to all nearby plants[20]. The whole plant has a sweet yet slightly peppery aroma[245]. Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer[233]. Special Features: Attractive foliage, Fragrant foliage, Not North American native, Attracts butterflies, Suitable for cut flowers, Suitable for dried flowers, Fragrant flowers.
Companion: The growing plant repels many insect pests so it is a good plant to grow in the vegetable area[201].
Ground Cover: A useful ground cover for sunny positions, forming a slowly spreading clump[197, K]. Plants should be spaced about 30cm apart each way[208].

References

• [Antifungal] Antifungal Plants of Iran: An Insight into Ecology, Chemistry, and Molecular Biology, Mehdi Razzaghi-Abyaneh, Masoomeh Shams-Ghahfarokhi and Mahendra Rai, Antifungal Metabolites from Plants, 2013
• http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Origanum%20vulgare, Accessed March 26, 2015
• http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Origanum+vulgare, Accessed March 26, 2015

ORIGANUM

Arthur O. Tucker

Perennial herb [subshrub] glabrous to short-hairy. Stem: decumbent to erect, generally branched. Leaf: petioled to sessile; blade generally ovate, entire to toothed. Inflorescence: axillary, sessile or peduncled, collectively spike- or panicle-like; wide bract subtending flower, bracts generally overlapping. Flower: calyx radial, 5-lobed; corolla 2-lipped, upper lip ± entire, lower 3-lobed; stamens 4, enclosed by upper lip or exserted; style lobes ± unequal.

45 species: Mediterranean, western Asia. (Greek: ancient common name, mountain delight) [Tucker & Rollins 1989 Baileya 23:14–27] Cult for tea, cooking herbs, essential oils (Origanum dictamnus L., dittany; Origanum majorana L., sweet marjoram).

Local Species;

1. Origanum vulgare - wild marjoram

References

• 2013. Origanum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_IJM.pl?tid=9474, accessed on Feb 19 2015