Thyme Essential oil France

Thyme is the Thymus species that is most popular as an herb. Its powerful fragrance is characteristic of Mediterranean cuisine. Alongside bay leaf and parsley, it forms the famous culinary bouquet garni. This thyme forms a low-growing, spreading subshrub with branched, woody stems. The aromatic leaves are small and greenish-gray with rolled edges and a downy underside. The abundant flowers, which bloom spring through autumn, are pure white to pale purple and thickly cover the leafy sprigs. Thyme grows wild on the vast scrublands of southern France. As a pioneer species, it prepares the ground for juniper and broom, then for larger trees, like oaks. Flowering branches of thyme are hand-harvested or reaped in June and July. French thyme, a thymol chemotype like Spanish red thyme, produces an agrestic, phenolic, herbaceous essential oil.

Native to the Mediterranean basin, thyme has been recognized as an herb and medicinal plant since ancient times. The Egyptians used thyme oil in religious embalming rituals, and the Greeks burned it as incense to honor their gods. In Ancient Greece, thyme was also used in eaux de toilette and wrinkle-prevention ointments. Legend has it that thyme was born of tears of Helen, the Greek princess whose breathtaking beauty lead to the Trojan War, as she wept over her abduction by Paris. Also dedicated to Venus, thyme brings vital energy.

Advised uses : Aromatherapy, Perfumery, Cosmetic, Alimentary