Significant research has found thyme and its essential oils to be antiseptic, antiviral, immune system enhancing, antioxidant, respiratory healing, pain-relieving and digestive.
This antiseptic property is why many mouth washes and antiseptic wipes often contain thymol. But science is has now found that thyme oil also reduces pain and even menses pain.
What is Thyme?
Thyme herb is scientifically known as Thymus vulgaris. It is a small, perennial, evergreen herb with woody stems. It has small, aromatic, grey-green leaves and clusters of tiny, tubular pink, purple, or white flowers that bloom in late spring to early summer.
Thyme is native to the Mediterranean region and is commonly grown in herb gardens around the world. It thrives in well-drained soil with full sun exposure and is often found in gardens, rocky hillsides, and dry slopes.
Primary Compounds
Thymol: A phenolic compound with strong antiseptic, antifungal, and antibacterial properties.
Carvacrol: Another phenolic compound known for its antimicrobial and antioxidant effects.
Linalool: A terpene with anti-inflammatory and sedative properties.
Rosmarinic acid: A polyphenolic compound with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Vitamin C: An essential vitamin with immune-boosting properties.
Thyme also contains thymonin, naringenin, linalool, myrcene, cymene, luteolin and apigenin – all with distinct therapeutic properties that buffer and balance each other.
Used in Traditional Medicines around the World
European Herbalism: Thyme has been used in traditional European medicine for centuries to treat respiratory and digestive issues.
Middle Eastern Medicine: In traditional Middle Eastern medicine, thyme is used for its antiseptic and immune-boosting properties.
African Medicine: Used in folk medicine to treat infections and improve digestion.
Health Benefits of Thyme
1. Antimicrobial Properties: Thyme has strong antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties, making it effective against a variety of pathogens.
Traditional Use: Used in traditional medicine to treat respiratory infections, sore throats, and other infections.
2. Respiratory Health: Thyme is known to alleviate symptoms of respiratory conditions such as bronchitis, coughs, and asthma.
Traditional Use: Used in traditional European and Middle Eastern medicine as a remedy for coughs and bronchial ailments.
3. Digestive Health: Thyme aids in digestion and can help alleviate gastrointestinal issues like bloating, indigestion, and gas.
Traditional Use: Employed to stimulate appetite and relieve digestive discomfort.
4. Anti-inflammatory Effects: The herb's anti-inflammatory properties help reduce inflammation and can be beneficial for conditions such as arthritis.
Traditional Use: Applied in poultices and ointments to treat inflammatory conditions and minor wounds.
5. Antioxidant Properties: Thyme's high antioxidant content helps protect cells from oxidative damage.
Traditional Use: Used to boost overall health and prevent chronic diseases.
6. Immune System Support: Rich in vitamins and antioxidants, thyme supports the immune system.
Traditional Use: Consumed in teas and infusions to bolster immunity and prevent illness.
Thyme inhibits viruses
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| Antiviral Thyme |
Increasing research has determined that plants provide some of the most promising opportunities to prevent the outbreak of these viruses, because not only are they easily cultivated and distributed, but they provide a source of resistance to viral outbreaks.
Thyme provides an alternative. Thyme contains multiple antiviral constituents, including thymol, camphor, borneol, carvacrol, terpinenes, pinenes, cymene, terpinenols, citral and cineoles. These and others have been found to be specifically antiviral, but more importantly, in combination, the plant and its essential oils provide significant antiviral protection.
And the mechanism of this antiviral protection appears to be related to the same properties found among other studies – of interfering with the glycoprotein molecule lined envelope that surrounds many of the most virulent viruses.
Antiviral for Herpes simplex
A 2017 study tested a number of plants and constituents against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). The stand-out compound that inhibited HSV-1 was found to be Thymol – a central compound found in Thyme as mentioned above. The researchers concluded:
“Thymol exhibited a high selectivity index and seems to be a promising candidate for topical therapeutic application as antiviral agent for treatment of herpetic infections.”
In 2007, researchers from Germany’s University of Heidelberg found that thyme oil – along with several other essential plant oils – has significant antiviral potency against the herpes simplex virus type 2.
The researchers found that Thyme oil was effective in inactivating the virus significantly. They found the Thyme oil was particularly antiviral immediately prior to the virus’ entry into the cells.
In 2006, researchers from the University of Heidelberg studied Thymus vulgaris against HSV-1, type 2 (HSV-2) and acyclovir-resistant HSV-1 (ACV (res)). They tested the viruses with was tested in vitro on cultured cells.
The researchers found that plaque formation in herpes simplex-1 and herpes simplex-2 was reduced by more than 90 percent in a dose-dependent manner (the gold standard for determining whether a substance is treating an infection), while ACV replication was inhibited by more than 85 percent gauged from plaque formation.
The researchers concluded:
“Therefore, the extracts exert their antiviral effect on free Herpes simplex virus and offer a chance to use them for topical therapeutic application against recurrent Herpes infections.”
Antiviral for Newcastle virus infections
More recently, research from Iran’s University of Ahvaz has found that extracts from the plant Thymus vulgaris – Thyme – provide protection from the potential outbreak of the Newcastle virus.
The Newcastle virus has primarily propagated among birds around the world. The virus was first discovered in Java and Newcastle, UK in 1926 and 1927. The virus can cause acute illness and frequent death among birds, and it is also transmissible to humans – though so far human infections have been slight.
The researchers tested Thyme against the Newcastle virus using eggs. The researchers inoculated seven hen eggs with the virus using some as controls, along with uninoculated eggs.
The researchers found that the antiviral activity of Thyme oil was attributed to its volatile biochemical content, which includes sesquiterpenes, monoterpenes, and phenylpropanoids – such as those mentioned earlier.
Because the Newcastle virus is an glycoprotein-enveloped virus, the researchers suggested that Thyme’s compounds “interfere” with the envelope over the virus. The researchers also found Thyme was able to also block attachment of the virus onto cell membranes, as well as block the entry of viruses into the cell.
In their discussion the researchers specifically identified Thyme’s ability to interfere with the glycoproteins within the membrane of the virus:
“The mechanism of action of these compounds is killing the virus and/or interfering with viral replication. The most important glycoproteins in Newcastle virus are hemagglutinin neuramidase and fusion proteins, which are necessary for attachment and multiplication. Protease inhibition activity is observed in some substances of these plants, thus these compounds can interfere with the cleavage of these glycoproteins and inhibit virus attachment.”
The glycoprotein envelope that covers Newcastle is similar to the glycoprotein that covers HIV, Herpes simplex, Hepatitis and Ebola viruses.
Thyme constituent inhibits COX-2
In a study from Japan’s Nara Women’s University, researchers found that one of thyme oil’s constituents, carvacrol, actually inhibits the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme – part of the body’s inflammatory process that produces pain.
This strategy – of inhibiting COX-2 – has been utilized by pharmaceutical medications including NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Yet some of these NSAIDs and COX-inhibitor drugs come with side effects such as cardiovascular and digestive problems, which docile herbs like thyme don’t seem to come with.
Thyme Oil beats out Ibuprofen for pain relief
Medical researchers have confirmed that thyme is not only an excellent pain-relieving herb. It also reduces pain of difficult menstruation better than ibuprofen.
The researchers tested 84 women university students who had reported difficult menstruation. The young women were aged between 18 and 24 years old. All were suffering from primary dysmenorrhea.
Primary dysmenorrhea is usually defined as painful cramping that may or may not come with other symptoms such as back ache, nausea, headaches and dizziness. Secondary dysmenorrhea usually indicates menses pain that is related to another underlying condition.
Here the researchers added to the definition of primary dysmenorrhea that it appears within two years of the beginning of menses (menarche) and no pelvic pain during the other parts of the monthly cycle. This is logical because painful menses is more frequently seen among younger women within the first few years of the beginning of menses.
The researchers divided the students into three groups of 28 each. Group one was given 200 milligrams of ibuprofen per dose plus 25 drops of a placebo essential oil.
Group two was given 25 drops of a 2% essential oil of thyme (Thymus vulgaris) plus a placebo capsule per dose.
Group three was given 25 drops of the placebo essential oil plus the placebo capsule.
Each subject was instructed to begin the treatment on the first day of menstruation, with a dose every six hours.
Pain intensity was recorded at the beginning before treatment was started, and an hour after each dose and 24 and 48 hours after they began the treatment. They also were asked to rate their blood flow.
The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to rate their pain intensity. The thyme essential oil group’s average pain scores went from 6.57 prior to treatment to 1.21 during the first menstrual cycle tested, and 1.14 during the second menstrual cycle.
Meanwhile, the ibuprofen group’s pain scores went from 5.30 to 1.48 in the first cycle and 1.68 during the second menstrual cycle.
Statistically insignificant?
One important note about the above study is that although the thymus oil reduced pain more than the ibuprofen, the researchers stated that the difference in pain reduction between thymus and ibuprofen was “statistically insignificant.” Statistical significance relates to whether a difference is large enough to avoid the possibility that the result was by chance.
Was the difference between the two insignificant? Take a look at the chart offered by the researchers:
Courtesy of Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine
Consider also what the researchers stated clearly in their paper:
“Both drugs (thymus vulgaris and ibuprofen) were effective in reducing the severity of dysmenorrheal pain. But the pain decreased more in thymus vulgaris group versus ibuprofen.”
The clearest indication – clearly not insignificant, was the responses from the women who were tested. Here is the table showing the satisfaction with the thymus versus the ibuprofen (remember, this was a triple-blind study, so they were not influenced by knowing whether they had taken the placebo, the ibuprofen or the thymus):
Courtesy of the Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine
The table shows that in the first treatment cycle, 71 percent of the thymus group qualified their satisfaction from pain relief as “excellent” while only 28 percent of the ibuprofen group qualified their satisfaction from pain relief as “excellent.”
This satisfaction from pain relief is increased in the second cycle, as 81.5 percent of the patients taking the thymus qualified their satisfaction from pain relief as “excellent” while only 25 percent of those taking the ibuprofen qualified their satisfaction from pain relief as “excellent.”
This of course means that while the statistical measurement of pain intensity showed the difference between the pain reduction scores of thyme versus ibuprofen was “insignificant” – there was a clear difference in the pain reduction in terms of the satisfaction of the test subjects using the Kruskal-Wallis analysis.
Drugs versus natural herbs
One of the key results of this study was that the thyme oil’s therapeutic effects increased for the women through the second cycle, while the ibuprofen’s pain-relieving effects were decreased during the second cycle.
The thyme oil pain reduction went from 6.57 prior to treatment to 1.21 in the first cycle and then down to 1.14 during the second menstrual cycle. And the percentage of test subjects that qualified the pain reduction as “excellent” went from 71 percent to 81 percent.
Meanwhile, the ibuprofen treated women’s pain scores went from 5.30 to 1.48 in the first cycle and then only 1.68 on the second cycle.
This decreasing effect, often the case among pharmaceuticals, is called drug tolerance. Because these are isolated chemicals, the body’s detoxification and immune systems see the active constituent as a foreigner to the body. Liver enzymes will target and break down the chemicals. Because the body remembers how to break things down, the body will become more efficient at breaking them down the next dose, resulting in the body increasing its tolerance to the drug.
Because the active ingredient is more efficiently broken down, the body will need higher doses in order to gain the same pain-reduction effect in a pain medication. (This also goes for other chemical drugs as well – including ethanol (alcohol) and this is how alcoholics and other drug users will need more of the drug to feel “high.”)
But this increased efficiency in breaking down a chemical through liver enzymes doesn’t mean the liver and other tissues aren’t damaged by the drug. Chemical drugs such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen are notorious for liver damage with higher doses – even though those doses will have less effectiveness.
The cells may also become more resistant to a chemical drug, as the receptors that initially allowed the chemicals access to are modified – causing receptor down-regulation.
Natural medicinal herbs are typically not seen as foreigners by the body. This is because they contain a number of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and other therapeutic compounds. For example, thyme has been found to have antiseptic and antioxidant effects within the body.
These nutritional and therapeutic properties keep the immune system from identifying a natural herb as a foreigner – so the body does not launch enzymes and immune cells to clear out the biochemicals within a natural herb.
Natural herbs also contain a combination of bio-identifiable constituents rather than a single active, isolated chemical. Thyme contains multiple active ingredients and buffers.
Pharmaceutical agents will typically contain one active chemical agent in addition to chemical excipients and additives that can be toxic to the body in larger doses. Even in smaller doses, they are seen as foreigners.
This stimulates the body’s detoxification processes, including the cytochrome P450 liver enzyme pathway that breaks down chemicals not belonging in the body.
The fact that natural herbs are not seen as foreigners to the body and thus do not put pressure on the liver and kidneys to cleanse them out also means that their effective constituents – such as the COX-inhibiting caryacrol content in thyme oil – will maintain a higher level of efficacy without the side effects. This is illustrated by the combination of research identified above.
Note the low concentration dose of thyme oil – 2%. Consult with your health practitioner before using essential oils internally.
Potent Thyme Relatives
Notable relatives of Thymus vulgaris include T. capitans and T. serphyllum (considered Wild Thyme). Other related herbs such as Marjoram, Horse mint and Japonica also contain thymol – one of the most scientifically-researched compounds in Thyme.
Another relative of Thymus vulgaris is Thymus linearis. Researchers from Nepal’s Tribhuvan University studied Herpes simplex against this species of Thyme and found it also had maintained significant antiviral activity against both HSV-1 and HSV-2.
Thymol is one of the standard antiseptics used today in hospitals and homes. Thymol is strongly antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral. Many commercial mouthwashes also contain thymol.
Thyme leaves vs essential oils
Thyme leaves are typically used in herbal medicine. The essential oils from the leaves and stems were used in most of the research above. One might pose the question: Will spicing my food with dried Thyme leaf/spice provide medicinal benefit? Probably not too much unless enough is added to overwhelm the food being spiced, but it certainly is a good addition to a meal.
Fresh Thyme leaves have greater potency than dried spice or leaf supplement because the essential oils remain. That said, many essential oils will remain in the dried leaf, but at lower levels.
Taking any essential oil internally should accompany the advice of a health professional.
Before using any essential oil, it is a good idea to apply a tiny amount to the skin to test for sensitivity.
REFERENCES
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Katsukawa M, Nakata R, Takizawa Y, Hori K, Takahashi S, Inoue H. Citral, a component of lemongrass oil, activates PPARα and γ and suppresses COX-2 expression. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2010 Nov;1801(11):1214-20. doi: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2010.07.004.
Salmalian H, Saghebi R, Moghadamnia AA, Bijani A, Faramarzi M, Nasiri Amiri F, Bakouei F, Behmanesh F, Bekhradi R. Comparative effect of thymus vulgaris and ibuprofen on primary dysmenorrhea: A triple-blind clinical study. Caspian J Intern Med. 2014 Spring;5(2):82-8.
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