Marjoram’s Healing Properties

Marjoram is a herb that you can buy in the supermarket, but you can also find it being sold in the wet market. You probably use it as a cooking spice but did you know that in Greek mythology, Majoram was used as part of various love potion recipes? Must be to do with the fact that it smells so intoxicatingly good.

photo credit : cookthink.com

Anyway, don’t mistake Marjoram for Oregano. Oregano is the calmer, sweeter version of Majoram. But while Oregano smells zesty and lemony, Marjoram is more delicate, floral and round. The two are often used interchangeably but they aren’t actually alike.

How do you tell the difference? Get a fresh sprig of marjoram and a fresh sprig of oregano. Tear an oregano leaf in half. Hold it up to your nose. The smell is sharp, and mainly one note – pine. If you do the same thing with the marjoram, you will smell a complexity of different smells. The spice is still there but it’s perfumed and heady. And that is why if you use too much Marjoram, it will kill your dish with an overpowering aroma.

Marjoram’s flowers, leaves, and oil are also medicinal. Tea made from the leaves or flowers is used for runny nose and colds in infants and toddlers, dry and irritating coughs, swollen nose and throat, and ear pain. Marjoram tea helps digestion problems including poor appetite, liver disease, gallstones, intestinal gas, and stomach cramps. The tea can also be used for relieving symptoms of menopause, treating mood swings related to menstrual periods, starting menstruation, and promoting the flow of breast milk.

Other uses include treating diabetes, sleep problems, muscle spasms, headaches, sprains, bruises and back pain. It is also used as tonic to promote better blood circulation. Marjoram oil is used for coughs, gall bladder complaints, stomach cramps and digestive disorders, depression, dizziness, migraines, nervous headaches, nerve pain, paralysis, coughs and runny nose.

In foods, marjoram is a culinary spice. The oil and oleoresin are used as flavor ingredients in foods and beverages. In manufacturing, the oil is used as a fragrance in soaps and cosmetics.