# Oregano and squinanth (Origanum vulgare)

**Origano*; *squinanto**

**Known today as.** Oregano, *Origanum vulgare*; squinanth, *Cymbopogon schoenanthus*, a relative of lemongrass.

Kind: Plant

## What did Canale use it for?

In the cockerel; oregano in baths for cold complexions (chs. 6–7).

## What does modern science say?

Aromatic. Oregano oil is antibacterial in the laboratory. Carvacrol in oregano oil kills bacteria and fungi in the dish and is studied as a feed additive; squinanth is a lemongrass, with citral in its oil, and the two together are a sound warming aromatic for a bath.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **carvacrol**: up to 80 per cent of oregano oil
- **thymol**: 
- **piperitone**: in camel grass, the squinanth
- **citral**: in lemongrass, often sold as squinanth

**Mechanism.** Carvacrol and thymol are broadly antibacterial and antifungal by disrupting membranes, which is the whole credential of “oil of oregano”; the camel grass of the Arab pharmacy is a carminative lemongrass relative.

**Dose.** Oregano as a herb is safe; the oil undiluted burns the mouth and skin.

**Standing.** Oregano has no EMA monograph (the agency assessed its cousins, dittany of Crete and marjoram); it is a spice with a laboratory literature, and squinanth has nothing.

## What lore surrounds it?

Oregano is “joy of the mountain,” *oros ganos*, the herb Aphrodite grew on Olympus and the Greeks planted on graves for the peace of the dead; squinanth was the camel’s hay, the fodder of the caravans, and a tent of it smelled of lemons.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Gives *origanon*, hot and biting, for the stomach and the chest, in baths and fumigations, and *schoinos*, the camel grass of Arabia, warming, for the womb and the stomach, in the great antidotes.

**The Arab trade.** Squinanth, *idhkhir*, came in bundles from Arabia and the Nile with the other aromatics of theriac and mithridate, and the Prophet is said to have allowed it to be cut in the sanctuary of Mecca for the smiths and the graves.

## Sources

- Dioscorides, *De materia medica* I and III.
- Sahih al-Bukhari, on the *idhkhir* of Mecca.
- Nostro, A., and Papalia, T. (2012). “Antimicrobial activity of carvacrol: current progress and future prospectives.” *Recent Patents on Anti-Infective Drug Discovery* 7.

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*Oregano and squinanth.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/oregano-and-squinanth

Historical description, not medical advice.