The Eden Institute Biblical Herbalism Education

Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile

Summer Savory

Satureja hortensis

Pronounced Summer Savory: SUM-er SAY-vuh-ree. Satureja hortensis: sat-oo-REE-yuh (also sat-uh-REE-juh) hor-TEN-sis.

Warm and dry, pungent and aromatic: a warming carminative and gentle astringent that scatters flatulent colic and trapped wind, tightens a loose, lax bowel, kindles a cold and sluggish digestion, and helps clear cold, damp phlegm from the chest.

At a glance

Botanical name
Satureja hortensis
Family
Lamiaceae (Labiatae, the mint family)
Part used
Aerial parts: the leafy, flowering tops and leaves of the annual herb, gathered as the plant comes into bloom in mid to late summer and dried. Distinguish it from its perennial cousin winter savory, Satureja montana, which is coarser and more sharply pungent; summer savory is the milder, sweeter culinary savory.
Taste
Pungent and warmly aromatic, with a distinct astringency and a faint bitterness. The aroma is thyme-like and peppery, owing to a carvacrol-rich volatile oil. The pungent, spicy warmth is the sensory signature, with the astringent, slightly drawing note that answers its old use for a loose bowel.
Temperature
Warm. A pungent, aromatic culinary stimulant that warms a cold, sluggish, gas-bound digestion and gently promotes a sweat in a cold, damp chest. The old herbals class savory as hot and dry (Culpeper places it under Mercury, hot and dry in the second degree); the warmth is dispersing and kindling rather than deeply nourishing.
Moisture
Dry. A warming, aromatic, astringent herb that dries damp and scatters gas; the carvacrol-thymol oil and the herb's astringency dry a boggy, loose, over-relaxed mucosa rather than moisten it. It disperses and tightens rather than lubricates.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Avoid therapeutic and essential-oil doses; ordinary culinary seasoning use is regarded as safe. Summer savory carries a longstanding traditional reputation as an emmenagogue (menses-promoting) herb, and modern consumer-safety references state there is not enough reliable information to know whether it is safe in medicinal amounts during pregnancy, advising avoidance to be on the safe side. The concentrated essential oil in particular should not be used. (WebMD summer savory monograph and RxList summer savory monograph, both drawing on the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database: not enough reliable information, avoid use; Review of Natural Products, drugs.com Savory monograph, noting the traditional emmenagogue use.)

While breastfeeding

Avoid therapeutic and essential-oil doses; culinary use is regarded as safe. Modern references report insufficient reliable data on the safety of medicinal summer savory during breastfeeding and advise avoiding medicinal amounts to stay on the safe side. Using it as an ordinary cooking herb is a far smaller exposure and is not a concern. (WebMD and RxList summer savory monographs, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database: not enough reliable information, avoid use.)

For children

Culinary amounts are appropriate for children as a food seasoning. Medicinal doses are not well studied in children, so use only gentle, dilute preparations such as a weak infusion for wind or a diluted gargle, and avoid concentrated extracts. The undiluted essential oil is a mucous-membrane and skin irritant and must never be given to a child internally or applied neat. (WebMD and RxList summer savory monographs on the irritant essential oil and the general lack of medicinal-dose data; NCCIH general caution on using unstudied botanical concentrates in children.)

Cautions

In ordinary culinary amounts summer savory is well tolerated and regarded as safe. The concentrated essential oil is a carvacrol-thymol-rich mucous-membrane and skin irritant: never take it undiluted internally, and dilute well for topical use. Medicinal and essential-oil doses may slow blood clotting and so should be used cautiously with bleeding tendencies and stopped before surgery. It has a traditional emmenagogue reputation and modern references find insufficient data on safety in pregnancy and lactation, so therapeutic and essential-oil doses are best avoided then. Alpha-glucosidase-inhibiting, blood-glucose-lowering activity has been shown in the laboratory, so watch for additive effects in people on antidiabetic medication.

General contraindications

Pregnancy and breastfeeding at therapeutic or essential-oil doses (traditional emmenagogue reputation; insufficient modern safety data). Bleeding disorders and the two-week window before scheduled surgery (may slow blood clotting). Concurrent anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy (additive bleeding risk). Undiluted essential oil on skin or mucous membranes (irritant). Caution with antidiabetic therapy (possible additive blood-glucose lowering). Hot, dry, inflamed, or yin-deficient conditions, in which a warming, drying aromatic is aggravating.

Stewardship

Summer savory is a fast-growing cultivated annual, easily raised from seed each year and in no way at risk; it is not listed by United Plant Savers or any conservation body. It is a sustainable, garden-friendly culinary herb, so home-grown or organically cultivated dried herb is both the greenest and the freshest source; there is no wild-harvest pressure on this plant.

In the traditional record

Not named in the canonical biblical texts. Summer savory is a classical Mediterranean garden and kitchen herb of the Greco-Roman world: Roman writers describe savory (Latin satureia) as a pungent, warming pot-herb and bee plant, and Virgil recommends it planted near hives for the honey. Its documented tradition runs through the classical Mediterranean and the European herbals (Culpeper, Gerard, Grieve) rather than Scripture, and the genus name links it in classical lore to the satyrs for its heating, aphrodisiac reputation.

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