Thyme is a commonly used spice in daily life. Its main function in cooking is to enhance the flavor and remove fishy odor. In addition, adding thyme to meals can also help with digestion and appetite. Let's take a closer look at the benefits of thyme!
Thyme, as a spice, mainly serves to enhance the aroma and remove fishy or gamey smells. It is particularly effective in Sichuan-style cold braised dishes, as it adds fragrance, promotes digestion, and stimulates the appetite.
Apart from its ability to remove bloody and foul odors, thyme, as a medicinal herb, also has the functions of invigorating the spleen, drying dampness, stimulating the appetite, and relieving nausea. It is commonly used for treating weak spleen and stomach, lack of appetite caused by dampness, depression, and cold stagnation, as well as vomiting and epigastric pain.
Thyme has the functions of dispelling cold, relieving pain, and stopping vomiting. It can also be used to treat chronic diarrhea caused by deficiency and cold (chronic bacterial dysentery, chronic colitis) by simmering thyme with costus root and magnolia bark, as in the recipe for Thyme and Cardamom Soup.
In cooking, thyme can be used together with cardamom or as a substitute. It plays a role in removing odors, enhancing fragrance, preventing spoilage, and promoting appetite in Sichuan-style cold braised dishes. Thyme also has a deboning effect in poultry products, making it essential in chicken dishes.
Thyme has the ability to dry and warm, dispel phlegm, and relieve malaria. It is used for cold and painful abdomen, chest and abdominal distention, intermittent phlegm accumulation, poor digestion, vomiting, and diarrhea. It has appetizing effects and is often used as a seasoning.
When used as a spice in braised dishes, apart from enhancing the aroma, thyme is highly valued for its ability to remove fishy and gamey odors.
In clinical practice, it is applied to treat stomach cold with abdominal pain, vomiting, pale lips and tongue, clear saliva, and loss of appetite (equivalent to certain types of acute gastritis and ulcer disease). It can be used in combination with evodia fruit, Corydalis yanhusuo, prepared aconite, and cyperus rotundus, with 6g of each herb, decocted in water and taken orally.
