The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

We wish you peace and health!

Dittany

Scientific Names

Dittany

  • Cunila origanoides L.
  • Mint family

Common Names

  • American dittany
  • Gas plant

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Parts Usually Used

Leaves
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Dittany is a wiry-stemmed, branched perennial that grows about 1 to 2 feet in height. The leaves are oval, 1 inch long, toothed, oregano-scented. Small violet to white flowers, the throats are hairy with 2 stamens, bloom in clusters in July to October.
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Where Found

Found in dry woods and thickets. Southeastern New York to Florida; Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois.
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Medicinal Properties

Febrifuge, emmenagogue
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Uses

The leaf tea is a folk remedy for colds, fevers, headaches, snakebites, and thought to induce menses.

Used as an insecticide and smoked as a nicotine-free tobacco. Used as an anitdote for sheep that have been poisoned by eating common laurel (Kalmia latifolia).
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Warning

Avoid during pregnancy until last weeks of term; uterine stimulant.

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Bibliography

Buy It! American Folk Medicine, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973

Buy It! Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs, by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814)

Buy It! Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

Buy It! The Herbalist Almanac, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994

Buy It! The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition

Buy It! Old Ways Rediscovered, by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, published from 1954, print 1988

Buy It! Webster’s New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023

Buy It! The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants (An Organic gardening and farming book), edited by William H. Hylton, Rodale Press, Inc. Emmaus, PA, 18049., 1974

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