Wild Thyme

Thymus serpyllum

Historical tradition – not medical advice, and no health or healing claims. more

Historical botanical drawing: Wild — Wild

Tradition (Hildegard's writings)

In Hildegard's tradition, wild thyme was associated with the skin and memory.

Ingredients

The flowering herb is used, that is leaves and flowers, fresh or dried and ground to a powder in a mortar. Its named constituents are an essential oil dominated by cymene, together with tannin, flavones and the bitter compound serpyllen.

Botanical background

Wild thyme, also called creeping or sand thyme, belongs to the mint family; it forms a low, aromatic subshrub five to thirty centimetres tall. Its stems lie flat or rise up and take root at the nodes where they touch the ground; the leaf stalks and lower leaf margins carry fine hairs. It differs from garden thyme in its more rounded, head-like inflorescences made up of false whorls; Thymus serpyllum in the strict sense — a segregate species — occurs only sparsely in the south and in the Alps. Its essential oil holds less thymol and carvacrol than that of true thyme, and cymene predominates instead. Hildegard describes it in the Physica as warm and temperate and links it there with the skin and the head.

Sources & references

Hildegard von Bingen: Heilsame Schöpfung. Die natürliche Wirkkraft der Dinge (Physica). Hrsg. von der Abtei St. Hildegard, Eibingen. Beuroner Kunstverlag 2012 (4. Auflage 2024). Cap. 1-32.
Strehlow, Wighard: Die Hildegard-Naturapotheke. Heilmittel und Rezepte von A bis Z. Knaur Verlag 2014.
Strehlow, Wighard: Der Hildegard-Kompass. Die wichtigsten Heilmittel und Anwendungen. Knaur Verlag 2014.
Heepen, Günther H.: Das Heilwissen der Hildegard von Bingen. Gräfe und Unzer Verlag 2015.

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More preparations using Wild

Wild Thyme Biscuits Wild Thyme Herb Powder Wild Thyme Salve

Historical tradition. The above describes how this preparation was recorded and used in the tradition of Hildegard of Bingen. This is cultural-historical information, not medical advice and not a health or healing claim, and it is no substitute for advice from a doctor or pharmacist. If you have health complaints, please consult your doctor or pharmacy.

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