English name: Wild thyme
Family: Lamiaceae
Botanical characteristic: A perennial, low-growing plant with a prostrate quadrangular stem. The leaves are short-stalked, opposite, egg-shaped, and entire-margined. Pink-purple flowers grow in clusters at the tops of the stems. The fruit is a small, dry, deciduous fruit from a two-seeded pistil which breaks into 4 one-seeded parts. The aboveground part of the plant is covered with glandular trichomes.
Microscopic drawing:
Distribution: It grows in meadows, pastures, on the edges of forests, in sunny places, along roads.
Drug: Serpylli herba
Harvesting method: The stalk without woody parts of the stem are collected at the time of flowering in dry weather, using gardening shears. It blooms from June to September.
Drying: The stalk with leaves is dried in a thin layer in the shade, in a ventilated room. When artificially dried at a temperature of up to 35 °C.
Active substances: Wild thyme belongs to the aromatic plants. The essential oil is composed of thymol, p-cymene, and carvacrol. The plant contains tannins, bitterness principles, flavonoids, and mineral substances.
Uses: The drug promotes coughing up thick and viscous mucus from the respiratory tract. Its preparations can be gargled for inflammation of the mucous membranes of the mouth and nasopharynx. The tea stimulates digestion and the essential oil is credited with strong antiseptic effects.
Traditional method of use in indications determined solely on the basis of long-term use:
– symptomatic treatment of productive cough associated with a cold.
Selected herbal preparations: FYTO WILD THYME 20×1 g, HANUS WILD THYME herb vacuum pack 1×45 g, AGROKARPATY RESPIRATORY HERBAL tea 20×2 g, aromatica MULLER’S SYRUP WITH WILD THYME AND VIT. C 245 ml, FYTO High Tatras Respiratory Blend candies 60 g, StrepHerbal Junior lozenges with vitamin C and zinc 24 pcs.