Culinary herbs : how to grow and where to sell with an account of their uses and history specially written to assist members of the British Guild of Herb Growers / by M. Grieve.

  • Grieve, Maude (Sophia Emma Magdalene Law), 1858-1941.
Date:
[1920?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Culinary herbs : how to grow and where to sell with an account of their uses and history specially written to assist members of the British Guild of Herb Growers / by M. Grieve. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In herbal medicine Thyme is generally now used in com- bination with other remedies. The action of Thyme is antiseptic, antispasmodic, tonic and carminative. The pounded herb, if given fresh, from 1—6 oz. daily, mixed with syrup, has been employed with success as a safe cure for whooping-cough. An infusion made from one ounce of the dried herb to one pint of boiling water, sweetened with sugar or honey is also used for the same purpose. All the different species of Thyme and Marjoram yield fra- grant oils extensively used by manufacturing perfumers for scenting soaps. When dried and ground, they enter into the composition of sachet powders. Two commercial varieties of Thyme Oil are recognised, the red, the crude distillate, and the white or colourless, which is the red when properly rectified by re-distilling. The yield of oil is very variable, from as low as 2 per cent, to 1 per cent, in the fresh herb (100 lbs. of the fresh flowering tops yielding from | to 1 lb. of essential oil) and 25 per cent, in the dried herb. French Oil of Thyme is the most esteemed variety of the oil known. A considerable quantity of Thyme Oil is also distilled in Spain. A somewhat different oil is obtained from the Lemon Thyme, Thymus serpyllum, var. citriodorus, This oil has an odour resembling Thyme, Lemon and Geranium. Oil of Thyme is em- ployed as a rubifacient and counter irritant in rheumatism, etc. In Perfumery, Essence of Thyme is used for cosmetics and rice powder. It is also used for embalming corpses. Thymol, a most valuable crystalline phenol is the basis of the fragrant volatile Fssence of Sweet Thyme, and is obtainable from Cm-urn copticum, Manarda punctata and various other plants, as well as from Thymus vulgaris, being present to the extent of from 20—60 per eent. in the oils which yield it. Thymol is a powerful antiseptic for both internal and external use; it is also employed as a deodorant and local anaesthetic. It is extensively used to medicate gauze and wool as surgical dressings. It resembles carbolic acid in its action, but is less irritant to wounds, while its germicidal action is greater. It is, therefore, preferable as a dressing, and during recent years it has been one of the most extensively used antiseptics.