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The next time you’re whipping up a quick pasta dish at home, you may want to consider adding an extra pinch of oregano—and not just because the aromatic herb is so tasty. The staple Mediterranean plant also contains a host of concentrated antioxidants that are super helpful for fighting inflammation, oxidative stress, and even infections. Thanks the many health benefits of oregano, it has actually been used as a natural remedy for centuries.
What is oregano?
Oregano is an aromatic plant in the mint Lamiaceae family, originally from the Mediterranean region, where it’s been grown for thousands of years. It has a woodsy stem with small, rounded leaves and tiny purple or white flowers that bloom from June to September. Today, it’s cultivated all over the world in backyard gardens and on farms and is used not just to flavor food, but also as an ingredient in holistic medicine.
Oregano has been celebrated for its medicinal properties since ancient Greek and Roman times when it was known as the plant of “joy and happiness.” They used it to treat everything from respiratory infections to wounds to digestive issues to toothaches. While oregano can be consumed both fresh and dried, it is also often used therapeutically in the form of oil widely available at many natural food or homeopathic stores.
“Oregano is a plant from the same family as mint and contains a variety of substances with powerful antioxidant properties,” confirms Shabir Daya, pharmacist and co-founder of Victoria Health in the United Kingdom. “Oregano oil is particularly rich in substances like carvacrol, thymol, and rosmarinic acid.” As Daya points out, these substances have a host of benefits: carvacrol helps slow down the proliferation of various species of bacteria; thymol has antimicrobial and antifungal properties, making it useful for fighting both bacterial and fungal infections. “These substances also improve intestinal health, and fight problems such as SIBO and Helicobacter Pylori infection,” she explains.
The health benefits of oregano
The health benefits of oregano are numerous. Historically, people have used oregano to treat cramps, asthma, skin sores, muscle aches, indigestion, colds, and to improve immunity. While more research is needed to confirm if oregano does indeed treat those conditions, some science does suggest that oregano has the power to regulate blood sugar, relieve inflammation, fight bacteria, and even fight cancer. These are the known health benefits of oregano—
- Oregano has antioxidant properties and counteracts the action of free radicals and help fight cancer
- Oregano has anti-inflammatory properties that help counteract inflammation throughout the body
- Oregano can counteracts viruses and bacteria to help fight infection
- Oregano is rich in vitamins K, E, A
- Oregano contains potassium which regulate blood pressure
- Oregano is rich in calcium
- Oregano contains soursop, which regulates blood sugar
How to use oregano in cooking
Oregano can be consumed to flavor so many dishes that perhaps the real question should be: where can’t you use it? If you enjoy its savory, aromatic flavor, you can sprinkle it on anything from pasta to pizza to salad to fish. It goes especially well with vegetables like tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplant, and cucumber, as well as with other ingredients like lemon, garlic, cheese, and olive oil—it is a Mediterranean herb after all.
Tomato and onion salad with oregano
Ingredients:
- 4 large ripe tomatoes, ideally San Marzano
- 1 red onion
- fresh or dried oregano
- basil (optional)
- extra virgin olive oil
- red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar
- sea salt
- ground pepper (optional)
Slice the tomatoes and onions and place into a bowl. Season with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Lastly, sprinkle generously with oregano, and if you wish, also add a few chopped basil leaves. Serve with thick, crusty bread.
