Thymus vulgaris is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is a woody, evergreen subshrub with small and highly aromatic grey-green leaves. The plant grows to 15-30 centimetres tall and bears clusters of purple or pink flowers in early summer. The species is native to southern Europe from the western Mediterranean to southern Italy. It is the main source of the herb thyme, which is slightly spicier than oregano and sweeter than sage.
The Latin epithet vulgaris means 'common' in the sense of 'widespread'. Common thyme is a Mediterranean perennial that does best in well-drained soils and full sun. It is useful in the garden as groundcover and is easily propagated from cuttings, and numerous cultivars and hybrids have been developed for ornamental purposes. French, German and English varieties differ in leaf shape and colour and in their essential oils.
Chemistry and chemotypes
Thymol is the principal aromatic component of thyme. Thymol, C₁₀H₁₄O, is a monoterpenoid and a phenol derivative of p-cymene, isomeric with carvacrol. Oil of thyme, the essential oil of common thyme, contains 20-54% thymol. The major constituents of commercial T. vulgaris essential oil are thymol (23%-60%), γ-terpinene (18%-50%), p-cymene (8%-44%), carvacrol (2%-8%), and linalool (3%-4%). Thymus vulgaris has a chemical polymorphism with six different chemotypes that show marked spatial segregation in nature. Chemotypes established from essential oil composition include linalool, borneol, geraniol, sabinene hydrate, thymol and carvacrol. A cluster analysis of 85 essential oil compositions revealed as many as 20 different chemotypes, and the thymol chemotype was the one with the most samples. The second most populated chemotype in the cluster analysis was a p-cymene/thymol type with 18 samples. An oil from Nyons, France was of the linalool chemotype, with linalool at 76.2% and linalyl acetate at 14.3%. An oil from Richerenches, France was of the thymol chemotype, with thymol at 47.1% and p-cymene at 20.1%. In gas chromatographic analysis of thyme leaves, thymol was the most abundant volatile component, at 8.55 mg/g. An oil from Jablanicki, Serbia was of the geraniol chemotype, with geraniol at 59.8% and geranyl acetate at 16.7%. A sample from Pomoravje District, Serbia was of the sabinene hydrate chemotype, with cis-sabinene hydrate at 30.8% and trans-sabinene hydrate at 5.0%. The thymol and carvacrol chemotypes are phenolic, and their oil holds high amounts of the precursors gamma-terpinene and paracymene. The geraniol, α-terpineol and linalool chemotypes are nonphenolic, and the phenolic chemotypes, which occur at the end of the biosynthetic chain, have a lower proportion of their oil made up of their dominant monoterpene.
Thymol
Thymol, also called 2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol, occurs naturally in oil of thyme and is extracted from Thymus vulgaris, ajwain and various other plants. It has a molar mass of 150.221 g/mol, melts at 49 to 51 °C and boils at 232 °C, and its density is 0.96 g/cm³. Thymol is only slightly soluble in water at neutral pH, with 0.9 g/L dissolving at 20 °C, but it is highly soluble in alcohols, other organic solvents and strongly alkaline aqueous solutions. In thyme and oregano its biosynthesis is predicted to begin with the cyclization of geranyl diphosphate to γ-terpinene. A cytochrome P450 then creates a dienol intermediate, a dehydrogenase converts this into a ketone, and keto-enol tautomerization gives thymol. Thymol is used as an antiseptic in mouthwash and as a preservative in halothane, an anaesthetic. It has also been used to control varroa mites in bee colonies, and it serves in the production of menthol by hydrogenation of its aromatic ring.
Culinary and medicinal use
Thyme is both a flavouring and a medicinal herb. Thymol provides the distinctive flavour of the culinary herb thyme. The plant has been used since ancient times as a culinary ingredient, to flavour cheeses and liqueurs and meats such as rabbit, boar and lamb. Today it is a common component of bouquet garni and of herbes de Provence. As a herbal medicine it has been used for thousands of years to treat alopecia, dental plaque, dermatophyte infections, bronchitis, cough, inflammatory skin disorders and gastrointestinal distress. Fresh thyme is more flavourful than dried but rarely keeps more than a week, though it can last many months if carefully frozen. Thyme retains its flavour on drying better than many other herbs. All thyme species are nectar sources, and wild thyme covers large areas of droughty, rocky soils in southern Europe and North Africa.
White thyme oil
In perfumery, white thyme oil and thyme absolute serve different roles. White thyme oil functions as a top-to-heart herbal modifier in aromatic, fougère, and chypre constructions — adding a sharp, green, almost medicinal edge that lifts compositions out of sweetness. Thyme absolute, richer and more tenacious, is a heart-note anchor in leather and aromatic compositions, providing the deep, warm herbaceousness that essential oil alone cannot deliver. Red thyme oil sees limited use in fine perfumery due to its aggressive phenolic character and skin-sensitization risk, but it remains a workhorse in functional fragrances — soaps, household cleaners, and antiseptic product lines where that raw medicinal bite is an asset. In PREMIEREPEAU's Simili Mirage, both thyme absolute and white thyme oil contribute to the torrefied maquis accord — the heated, sun-baked garrigue territory that anchors the fragrance's leather-mineral structure.
This note in PREMIEREPEAU. Simili Mirage. Sample all seven extraits in the Discovery Set.
—
Related: Artemisia · Basil · Basil Oil · Bay Leaf · Chamomile · Clary Sage · Fig · Immortelle
