A Cure-all Oil?

Oil of oregano has been touted as curing everything from diarrhea to rheumatism. Various authorities have praised its supposed ability to relieve intestinal gas, sore throat, sinusitis, breathing difficulties, dandruff, diaper rash, bee stings and venomous bites. And experts have lauded it for its apparent power to reduce fever, relieve cramps, mitigate the effects of measles and mumps, and benefit indigestion, nervous tension, toothache, earache and coughs due to whooping cough and bronchitis.

But four recent scientific studies overshadowed herbal lore by showing the oil confers a distinct benefit on colon and liver health. One investigation, reported in the journal Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology, found that oregano oil significantly improved rat colitis, or inflammation of the colon.

Compared to the control group, the oregano-treated rats fared much better in terms of visually obvious disease signs such as ulceration and swelling. In another study, this one in the journal Mediators of Inflammation, thyme and oregano oils, used in combination, were also discovered to benefit colitis in mice.

The oils reduced the levels of cytokines, biochemicals associated with inflammation. This resulted in lower mortality, greater body-weight gain and less tissue damage in the animals. Regarding benefits to the liver, an investigation reported in the journal Phytomedicine looked at the effects of carvacrol, one of the main active ingredients in oil of oregano, on liver regeneration.

Rats with their livers party surgically removed were divided into two groups. One was administered carvacrol, and the other served as the control group. The carvacrol group experienced much greater liver-weight gain. Another study in Phytomedicine found that carvacrol protected the livers of rats that had had the blood supply restricted to those organs. The researchers also discovered that carvacrol was nontoxic to the rat livers at the doses used in the experiment.