What is oregano?
Oregano is a type of plant belonging to the mint family that mainly grows in the warm temperate climimates of western and southwestern Eurasia and also the Medi-terranean region. It is a perennial herb with purple flowers and olive green leaves which are shaped like a spade.

Oregano is widely used in cuisines across the world. It is however more popular in Italian-American dishes than in any other dishes. American soldiers who used to fight in the Second World War would bring back some oregano with them when they returned home. They referred to it as the ‘pizza herb’. It thus began to become popu-lar in the U.S. It had however been in use in Italy for long. The Italians use it in meat, fish, and vegetables. Oregano is also a popular spice in Turkey, Greece, Phil-ippines, Latin America and the Mediterranean Basin.

The oregano leaves are dried and used as a spice. The dried leaves give out a warm, aromatic and slightly bitter flavor. Fresh oregano leaves can also be used to spice food. Oregano goes well with meat and meat products, chicken, fish, eggs, potato salads, soups, sauces, and pizza. It can also be added to alcoholic beverages and milk. Oregano is also used in the form of oil.

Oregano is popularly used in cuisines because of its ability to blend well with toma-to-based dishes and other spices. Oregano can be combined with other spices like paprika and pepper.

Benefits of oregano
Besides adding a great taste to various dishes, oregano is beneficial to one’s health in a number of ways. These benefits are as follows:

Oregano contains antioxidants
Oregano is a herb which has a high antioxidant property. In fact, a recent research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agricultural on various herbs revealed that oregano contained the highest proportion of antioxidants of all the herbs. The anti-oxidant activity of oregano was found to be even higher than that of Vitamin E and some well-known foods with antioxidant content like fruits and vegetables.

Oregano contains rosmarinic acid which is a strong antioxidant. Antioxidants help to neutralize free radicals in the body and thereby prevent their harmful effects like disease and aging.

Oregano prevents inflammation and bone degeneration
Researchers from the University of Bonn and ETH Zurich have found that including oregano in one’s diet helps to prevent inflammation. Oregano was found to be capa-ble of fighting inflammation because it contains betacaryophylin (E-BCP). In this particular research, the researchers administered E-BCP to mice with inflamed paws and E-BCP was found to have helped 7 out of every 10 mice.

Oregano fights disease-causing microbes
Oregano has antimicrobial properties. It acts against bacteria, fungi and even virus-es.

Oregano contains thymol and carvacol, these are phytochemicals with strong anti-microbial properties. They are capable of killing the Listeria bacteria which com-monly cause of food poisoning. The phytochemicals also fight Candida. In addition, the antiviral properties of oregano help it to fight upper respiratory diseases like common cold and flu. The effectiveness of oregano in fighting upper respiratory dis-eases depends on the concentration of carvacol. The higher the concentration of car-vacol, the more effective it is. Oregano stimulates sweat production and ingesting it can therefore help to remove excess phlegm and decongest lungs.

It helps in fighting cancer
Oregano contains a phytochemical know as carnosol. This phytochemical has been found to be helpful in fighting skin cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer and breast can-cer. Carvacol and another component found in oregano know as quercetin help to fight cancer. Quercetin helps to fight breast and ovarian cancers.