Marjoram The Mediterranean Miracle

There’s no doubt the Mediterranean diet is good for you. Study after study links it to improved health—those who consistently eat the diet have less heart disease, less high blood pressure and stroke, less cancer, less prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, less Alzheimer’s, less obesity, even less depression. But there’s still a lot of scientific debate about which elements in the Mediterranean diet bestow the greatest degree of health. Is it the olive oil, rich in monounsaturated fat? The antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables? The red wine and its resveratrol? The blood-thinning garlic? Or is the diet so healthful because of what’s not in it, such as the saturated fat in red meat?

Well, one study shows a spice might play a big role in the health-giving power of the Mediterranean diet—marjoram.

Double the Protection

For the study, Italian researchers created several versions of the typical Mediterranean-style salad—leafy greens, crunchy fresh vegetables, and a spicy olive oil-based dressing. Their purpose: calculate the antioxidant power of each salad, as measured by its ability to stop cell-damaging, cell-destroying oxidation. (It’s an accepted scientific fact that oxidation is a key process underlying most chronic diseases and aging itself.) To do this, the researchers used a test that measured antioxidant activity in terms of units of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC)—the capacity of antioxidants to absorb and disarm the “radical oxygen species” that do oxidative damage.

Each salad contained standard Mediterranean goodies: locally grown Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and carrots; a salad dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar, infused with either basil, parsley, or a combination of garlic, rosemary, sage, and red chile; and—the important part—a varying combination of one or more of 30 other vegetables and spices. Each salad was tested four times for ORAC.

Marjoram is a beautiful, flowering plant that graces mountainsides in France, Greece, and Italy.

Marjoram Alert!

When the researchers sprinkled one of the salads with marjoram, ORAC units doubled. And sprinkled means sprinkled—the researchers added only three grams of the spice, about a teaspoon.

Why is marjoram so powerful? Ursolic acid, carvacrol, and thymol, said the researchers. These and other antioxidants in marjoram can protect the body in many ways.

Marjoram may help prevent and/or treat:

Alzheimer’s disease

Blood clots

Cancer

Fungal infection

Heart disease

Indigestion

Infection, bacterial

Pollution side-effects

Stroke

Ulcer

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Marjoram pairs well with these spices:

Basil

Celery seed

Cumin

Garlic

Oregano

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Sun-dried tomato

Thyme

and complements recipes featuring:

Beans

Bell peppers

Cabbage

Eggs

Lamb

Salad dressings

Sausage

Tomato sauces

Venison

White sauces

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Other recipes containing marjoram:

Bouquet Garni

Hungarian Goulash

Penne and Sausage with Fennel Tomato Sauce

Pizza Spice Blend

Spice de Provence

Marvelous Marjoram

Many animal and cellular studies show that marjoram may help defeat some of the same diseases as the Mediterranean diet—and others, as well.

Helping slow Alzheimer’s disease. The drugs used to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease do so by boosting levels of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that speeds communication between brain cells. In an animal study, Korean researchers found that ursolic acid was nearly as powerful as an acetylcholine-increasing drug. Ursolic acid “could slow down the decline of cognitive function and memory in some patients with mild or moderate” Alzheimer’s disease, and “might be a therapeutic treatment for the disease.”

Fighting cancer. In the laboratory, researchers in Lebanon found that marjoram extracts stopped the growth of human leukemia cells. The extract is a “potential therapeutic agent,” they concluded inLeukemia Research.

Stopping heart attacks and strokes. Marjoram is used as a blood thinner in Iranian folk medicine, noted a team of researchers from the University of Tehran. When they tested the spice in the laboratory, they found it cut platelet aggregation (the clumping of blood components that form artery-clogging blood clots) by 40 percent. This observation provides “the basis for the traditional use” of marjoram “in treatments of cardiovascular diseases and thrombosis [blood clots],” wrote the researchers in the journal Vascular Pharmacology.

Better digestion. Noting the “high consumption of marjoram in the Iranian population,” another team of Iranian doctors tested the spice’s ability to trigger the release of pepsin, a protein-digesting enzyme. Marjoram increased pepsin production in laboratory animals by 30 percent.

Pollution protection. In a study by Egyptian researchers, marjoram extracts protected laboratory animals against liver and kidney damage from lead toxicity, probably because of its antioxidant power. “Populations with low-level lead exposure should use” marjoram extracts, the researchers concluded.

Antioxidant Superstars

The vegetables in the list were tested for antioxidant activity in the Italian study discussed earlier in this post. They’re listed in order of antioxidant power, from top to bottom (though they all scored high!).

1. Artichoke

2. Garlic

3. Beetroot

4. Radish

5. Red chicory

6. Broccoli

7. Leek

8. Spinach

9. Beet greens

10. Cabbage

11. Onion

12. Eggplant

13. Butternut squash

14. Yellow pepper

15. Cauliflower

16. Romaine lettuce

17. Red bell pepper

18. Green bell pepper

19. Tomato

20. Zucchini

21. Celery

22. Cucumber

Preventing ulcers. Researchers in Saudi Arabia found that marjoram protected laboratory animals against chemically induced ulcers. In another study from the Middle East, marjoram extracts protected experimental animals from chemically induced damage to the liver, kidney, and testes.

Infection protection. Indian researchers found that a marjoram extract effectively killed a range of disease-causing fungi and bacteria, including Candida albicans (vaginal yeast infections), Escherichia coli (food poisoning), and Staphylococcus aureus (staph infections).

Getting to Know Marjoram

Marjoram is a beautiful, flowering plant that graces mountainsides in France, Greece, and Italy, and also graces Mediterranean kitchens with its aroma. (It’s also a kissing cousin to oregano—its Latin name isOriganum marjorana—and many cooks find them hard to tell apart.)

MARJORAM WREATHS ARE ANCIENT SYMBOLS OF LOVE AND JOY.

In ancient Greece, brides and grooms wore marjoram wreaths as a symbol of love and joy. Today’s Greeks are still in love with marjoram—the scent of marjoram in meats and vegetable dishes cooked on open grills is a fixture of Greek life. (And it’s a key ingredient in the gyro, a Greek dish that’s become popular in the US and worldwide.)

The French also use a lot of marjoram. It’s particularly popular in France’s southern Provence region, and a key ingredient in the spice mix bouquet garni. The French use both fresh and dried marjoram to flavor chicken, lamb, fish, and butter sauces.

Germans call marjoram the “sausage herb” and often pair it with thyme when making homemade sausage.

Italians use it much the same way they do oregano: to the typical Italian cook, if something tastes good with oregano, then it tastes good with marjoram.

In the kitchen, Americans favor oregano over marjoram, but it’s a commonly used commercial preservative in liverwurst, bologna, cheeses, soups, and salad dressings. It’s also a key spice in commercial poultry seasoning.

How to Buy Marjoram

Marjoram is often called sweet marjoram, to distinguish it from oregano (which also is called wild marjoram, to make matters even more confusing). Worldwide, most commercial marjoram is grown in the Mediterranean region. Most of the marjoram sold in the United States is from Egypt.

Mediterranean Vinaigrette

Make a large batch and keep it on hand in the refrigerator. For salad fixings, favor the antioxidant-rich vegetables listed in the box Antioxidant Superstars.

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, diced

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

¼ teaspoon crushed rosemary

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Put the mustard in a small mixing bowl and whisk in the olive oil. Add the vinegar, garlic, marjoram, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Put in a dressing jar with a firmly fitting lid. Shake well before using.

Marjoram is available fresh, dried (whole or broken), and ground. It is sold dried in the spice section of most supermarkets. Kept in an airtight container in a cool, dry place, it maintains freshness for about a year.

In the Kitchen with Marjoram

Marjoram has a slightly bittersweet taste that is more like thyme than oregano. You can’t go wrong putting it in any dish, but it works best with Mediterranean-style dishes and flavors.

Compared to oregano (as it often is), marjoram is mild. As a rule of thumb, use marjoram to flavor more delicate foods, such as eggs, and oregano to flavor stronger foods, such as eggplant. Being mild also makes it quite versatile.

There is really only one mistake you can make cooking with marjoram, and that’s cooking it too long. Because it’s delicate, it has a tendency to turn bitter, so always add it toward the end of a recipe with long-cooking foods.