Oregano (Origanum vulgare) is an herb that is a member of the mint family (Labiatae). It has been considered a precious plant commodity for over 2,500 years in folk medicines that originated across the globe.It has a very long use in traditional medicine for treating colds, indigestion and upset stomachs.You might have some experience cooking with fresh or dried oregano leaves — such as oregano spice, one of the top herbs for healing — but oregano essential oil is far from what you’d put in your pizza sauce.
Found in the Mediterranean, throughout many parts of Europe, and in South and Central Asia, medicinal grade oregano is distilled to extract the essential oil from the herb, which is where a high concentration of the herb’s active constituents are found. It takes over 1,000 pounds of wild oregano to produce just one pound of oregano essential oil, in fact.
The oil’s active ingredients are preserved in alcohol and used in essential oil form both topically (on the skin) and internally.
When made into a medicinal supplement or essential oil, oregano is often called “oil of oregano.” As mentioned above, oregano oil is a considered a natural alternative to prescription antibiotics.
Oil of oregano contains two powerful compounds called carvacrol and thymol, both of which have been shown in studies to have strong antibacterial and antifungal properties.
Oregano’s oil is primarily made of carvacrol, while studies show that the plant’s leaves contain a variety of antioxidant compounds, such as phenols, triterpenes, rosmarinic acid, ursolic acid and oleanolic acid.
Oregano Oil Benefits
What can you use oregano essential oil for? The predominant healing compound found in oregano oil, carvacrol, has widespread uses ranging from treating allergies to protecting the skin. The Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Messina in Italy reports that:
Carvacrol, a monoterpenic phenol, has emerged for its wide spectrum activity extended to food spoilage or pathogenic fungi, yeast and bacteria as well as human, animal and plant pathogenic microorganisms including drug-resistant and biofilm forming microorganisms.
Carcavol found in oregano essential oil is so potent that it has been been the focus of over 800 studies referenced in PubMed, the world’s No. 1 database for scientific evidence-based literature. To give you a sense of how multi-functional and impressive carvacrol is, it has been shown in studies to help reverse or reduce some of these common health problems:
- Bacterial infections
- Fungal infections
- Parasites
- Viruses
- Inflammation
- Allergies
- Tumors
- Indigestion
- Candida
Here’s a look at the top health benefits of oregano oil:
1. Natural Alternative to Antibiotics
What’s the problem with frequently using antibiotics? Broad-spectrum antibiotics can be dangerous because they don’t only kill bacteria that are responsible for infections, but they also kill good bacteria that we need for optimal health.
In 2013, the Wall Street Journal printed a fantastic article highlighting the dangers that patients may face when they repeatedly use antibiotics. In the author’s words, “Recent studies have shown that doctors are overprescribing broad-spectrum antibiotics, sometimes called the big guns, that kill a wide swath of both good and bad bacteria in the body.”
Overuse of antibiotics, and prescribing broad-spectrum drugs when they aren’t needed, can cause a range of problems. It can make the drugs less effective against the bacteria they are intended to treat by fostering the growth of antibiotic-resistant infections, and it can wipe out the body’s good bacteria (probiotics), which help digest food, produce vitamins and protect from infections, among other functions.
Unfortunately, broad-spectrum antibiotics are very commonly prescribed, often for conditions in which they have no use, such as viral infections. In one study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, researchers from the University of Utah and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that 60 percent of the time when physicians prescribe antibiotics they choose broad-spectrum types.
A similar study of children, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that when antibiotics were prescribed they were broad-spectrum 50 percent of the time, mainly for respiratory conditions.
In contrast, what does oil of oregano do for you that makes it so beneficial? Essentially, taking oregano oil is a “broad-spectrum approach” to protecting your health.
Its active ingredients help fight multiple types of harmful pathogens, including bacteria, yeast and fungi. As a study in the Journal of Medicinal Food journal stated in 2013, oregano oils “represent an inexpensive source of natural antibacterial substances that exhibited potential for use in pathogenic systems.”
2. Fights Infections and Bacterial Overgrowth
Here’s the good news regarding the use of less-than-ideal antibiotics: There’s evidence that oregano essential oil can help fight at least several strains of bacteria that cause health problems that are commonly treated with antibiotics.
Here are some highlights of the ways oregano oil benefits these conditions:
- Dozens of studies confirm the fact that oregano oil can be used in place of harmful antibiotics for a number of health concerns.
- In 2011, the Journal of Medicinal Food published a study that evaluated the antibacterial activity of oregano oil against five different types of bad bacteria. After evaluating the antibacterial characteristics of oil of oregano, it showed significant antibacterial properties against all five species. The highest activity was observed against E. Coli, which suggests that oregano oil could potentially be routinely used to promote gastrointestinal health and prevent deadly food poisoning.
- A 2013 study published in Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture concluded that “O. vulgare extracts and essential oil from Portuguese origin are strong candidates to replace synthetic chemicals used by the industry.” Researchers from the study found that after studying the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of oregano, Origanum vulgare inhibited the growth of seven tested strains of bacteria that other plant extracts could not.
- One study involving mice that was published in the journal Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia also found impressive results. In addition to fighting bacteria like listeria and E. coli, researchers also found evidence that oregano oil may have the ability to help pathogenic fungi.
- Other evidence shows that oregano oil’s active compounds (such as thymol and carvacrol) can help fight toothaches and earaches caused by bacterial infections. A 2005 study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded, “Essential oils or their components placed in the ear canal can provide effective treatment of acute otitis media.”
3. Helps Reduce Side Effects From Medications/Drugs
In recent years, many studies have found that one of the most promising oregano oil benefits is helping reduce side effects from medications/drugs. These studies give hope to people who want to find a way to manage the horrible suffering that accompanies drugs and medical interventions, such as chemotherapy or use of drugs for chronic conditions like arthritis.
A study published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine showed that phenols in oil of oregano can help protect against methotrexate toxicity in mice.
Methotrexate (MTX) is a drug commonly used to treat a wide array of issues from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis, but it’s also well-known to have dangerous side effects. After evaluating oil of oregano’s ability to keep these factors at bay, researchers believe it’s due to oregano’s antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.
Oregano was shown to work better than drugs that are ineffective at providing full protection against MTX’s adverse effects.
By evaluating various markers in the sciatic nerve in mice, it was observed for the first time that carvacrol decreased the pro-inflammatory response in mice being treated by MTX. Being a relatively new concept in the research world, it’s likely that there will be more studies testing these results because “groundbreaking” doesn’t even begin to describe the significance of this potential oregano health benefit.
Similarly, research conducted in the Netherlands showed that oregano essential oil can also “prevent bacterial overgrowth and colonization in the large intestine during oral iron therapy.” Used to treat iron deficiency anemia, oral iron therapy is known to cause a series of gastrointestinal issues like nausea, diarrhea, constipation, heartburn and vomiting.
It’s believed that carvacrol targets the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria and increases membrane permeability, thereby causing depletion of harmful bacteria. In addition to its antimicrobial properties, carvacrol also interferences with certain pathways for bacterial iron handling, which helps lower side effects of iron therapy.
