Should you add herbs such as Thyme to your olive oil?
Not only can these herbs give your olive oil a great flavor but new results from a clinical trial suggest it could help improve antioxidant protection.
Virgin olive oil is a popular food ingredient found in the Mediterranean diet and often receives the most attention for its health promoting properties.
However, Mediterranean herbs like Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) do not receive enough attention for their health promoting properties.
A new clinical trial tested different olive oil combinations with or without thyme to determine if antioxidant protection was better with this Mediterranean herb.
The results of this clinical trial were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
You can read more articles and clinical about ‘Good fats’ here.
Here are the study details
– 33 Human subjects participated in the study
– Patients were randomized to receive either:
1) 25 mL of olive oil (2.88 mg of total polyphenols)
2) virgin olive oil enriched with olive oil polyphenols (12.59 mg of total polyphenols)
3) Virgin olive olive oil with Thyme polyphenols (12.10 mg of total polyphenols)
– Blood was collected during the study to test for markers of oxidative stress (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), methionine (Met), methionine sulfoxide (MetSO), and 8-iso prostaglandin F2α (8-iso PGF2α)
– Olive oil contained Hydroxytyrosol (HT) and its derivatives 4.3 milligrams per 25 milliliter, phenolic acids (0.65 mg per 25 mL, flavonoids (2.95 mg per 25 mL).
Here are the main results:
– Patients consuming olive oil with Thyme had the lowest 8-OHdG (a marker of oxidative stress and DNA damage) compared to the other olive oil groups.
– Superoxide dismutase (SOD) (an antioxidant enzyme) improved the most with olive oil and thyme compared to olive oil alone.
Here are comments by the authors of the study
In conclusion, the sustained intake of a phenol-enriched virgin olive oil with its own polyphenols and complemented with thyme polyphenols improves DNA protection against oxidation and antioxidant endogenous enzymatic activity probably due to a greater bioavailability of thyme phenolic compounds in hyperlipidemic subjects.
Here is an article about the health benefits of Thyme.
Take away message:
The results of this clinical trial provide evidence that it is probably a good idea to add Mediterranean herbs to your olive oil to get the best antioxidant protection. It is not uncommon to see different Mediterranean herbs like thyme, oregano, rosemary, and basil added to olive oil to give it a unique flavor.
In addition, to the great flavor you could be getting even more antioxidant protection than virgin olive oil alone.
Reference: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2016; Volume 64 (Issue 9):1879-88.
His research on plant medicine has led to more than 45 publications and abstracts.This research has been presented at international meetings in the USA, France, Turkey, Peru, Israel, Austria, and Italy.
Categories: Antioxidant, Cholesterol, Clinical Trials, Good fats (PUFAs, omega-3), Herbs