The Eden Institute Biblical Herbalism Education

Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile

Sweet Marjoram

Origanum majorana

Pronounced Sweet Marjoram: MAR-juh-rum. Origanum majorana: oh-RIG-uh-num (also or-ih-GAY-num) maj-uh-RAY-nuh (also mah-yoh-RAH-nah).

Warm and dry, pungent and sweetly aromatic: a relaxing aromatic nervine and warming carminative that unknots nervous, colicky, cramping tension, scatters trapped wind, quiets a busy mind toward sleep, coaxes on a scanty, cramping period, and warms a cold, damp chest at the onset of a cold.

At a glance

Botanical name
Origanum majorana
Family
Lamiaceae (Labiatae, the mint family)
Part used
Aerial parts: the leafy, flowering tops and leaves of the tender perennial (grown as an annual in cold climates), gathered as the plant comes into bloom and dried. The species is Origanum majorana L., long known also under the synonym Majorana hortensis Moench. Distinguish sweet or knotted marjoram from its coarser, hotter relatives wild marjoram / oregano (Origanum vulgare) and pot marjoram; sweet marjoram is the mild, sweetly aromatic culinary and medicinal marjoram.
Taste
Pungent and warmly aromatic, with a faint sweetness, a light bitterness, and a slight astringency. The aroma is soft, sweet, and camphoraceous rather than sharp, owing to a volatile oil rich in cis-sabinene hydrate and terpinen-4-ol with comparatively little carvacrol, which is exactly why it reads as sweet and mild beside its fiery cousin oregano. The pungent, aromatic warmth is the sensory signature, carried by a gentle bitterness and a mild drawing astringency that answer its old use as a nerve-settling digestive and a sore-throat gargle.
Temperature
Warm. A pungent, aromatic, relaxing carminative that warms a cold, tense, gas-bound digestion, unknots nervous, spasmodic tension, and gently promotes a sweat in a cold, damp chest. Culpeper makes sweet marjoram a herb of Mercury, warming and comforting, hot and dry in the second degree; the warmth is dispersing, calming, and kindling rather than deeply nourishing.
Moisture
Dry. A warming, aromatic, gently astringent herb that dries damp and scatters gas; the terpinen-4-ol and cis-sabinene-hydrate oil and the herb's mild astringency dry a boggy, loose, over-relaxed mucosa and a cold, damp catarrh rather than moisten. Because it is drying as well as warming, it is best given to dry, nervous constitutions in a warm, moist vehicle such as a sweetened tea or warm milk.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Avoid therapeutic and essential-oil doses; ordinary culinary seasoning use is regarded as safe. Marjoram is rated possibly unsafe in medicinal amounts during pregnancy: it carries a longstanding emmenagogue (menses-promoting) reputation and might stimulate menstruation, which could threaten the pregnancy. Modern consumer-safety references advise avoiding medicinal amounts and the concentrated essential oil and keeping to food-level seasoning. (WebMD and RxList Marjoram monographs, drawing on the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database: possibly unsafe in medicinal amounts, may start menstruation.)

While breastfeeding

Avoid therapeutic and essential-oil doses; culinary use is regarded as safe. Modern references report that there is not enough reliable information to know whether medicinal marjoram is safe during breastfeeding and advise staying on the safe side by keeping to food amounts. Using it as an ordinary cooking herb is a far smaller exposure and is not a concern. (WebMD and RxList Marjoram monographs, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database: not enough reliable information, stick to food amounts.)

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, well-sweetened infusion for wind, colic, or restlessness, and avoid concentrated extracts. The undiluted essential oil is a mucous-membrane, skin, and eye irritant and must never be given to a child internally or applied neat, and aromatic oils should be kept away from the faces of infants and young children. (WebMD and RxList Marjoram monographs on the irritant oil and the general lack of medicinal-dose data; NCCIH general caution on using unstudied botanical concentrates in children.)

Cautions

In ordinary culinary amounts sweet marjoram is well tolerated and regarded as safe and nontoxic. The concentrated essential oil is far stronger: dilute it well for topical use, keep it away from the eyes, and do not take it undiluted internally. The fresh herb and the oil can irritate the eyes and sensitive skin and occasionally cause contact dermatitis. Medicinal and essential-oil doses may slow blood clotting, so use them cautiously with bleeding tendencies and stop them at least two weeks before surgery, and they may lower blood sugar, so watch for additive effects with antidiabetic medication. Marjoram carries a longstanding emmenagogue reputation and is rated possibly unsafe in medicinal amounts in pregnancy. Its relaxing, mildly sedative action can cause drowsiness in larger doses, so take care with driving or machinery.

General contraindications

Pregnancy at therapeutic or essential-oil doses (emmenagogue reputation; rated possibly unsafe in medicinal amounts). Breastfeeding at therapeutic or essential-oil doses (insufficient modern safety data; food amounts only). Bleeding disorders and the two-week window before scheduled surgery (may slow blood clotting). Concurrent anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy (additive bleeding risk). Caution with antidiabetic therapy (possible additive blood-glucose lowering), with lithium (a mild diuretic action may raise lithium levels), and with anticholinergic or cholinergic drugs (marjoram has cholinergic, cholinesterase-inhibiting activity). Undiluted essential oil on skin, mucous membranes, or near the eyes (irritant). Hot, dry, inflamed, or yin-deficient conditions, in which a warming, drying aromatic is aggravating.

Stewardship

Sweet marjoram is a fast-growing cultivated herb, easily raised from seed and cuttings 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, and there is no wild-harvest pressure on this plant.

In the traditional record

Not named as such in the canonical biblical texts. Sweet marjoram, Origanum majorana, is a Greco-Roman and Mediterranean garden herb: the Greeks knew it as amarakos or sampsuchon and dedicated it to Aphrodite, weaving it into wedding and funeral garlands as a token of love and honor, and Dioscorides describes sampsuchon (amarakon) as a warming aromatic. It is worth noting honestly that the marjoram of Scripture is a matter of its relatives, not this species: several scholars identify the biblical 'hyssop' (Hebrew ezov, e.g. Exodus 12:22; Psalm 51:7) with the closely related Syrian oregano, Origanum syriacum (bible hyssop, za'atar), rather than with sweet marjoram. Sweet marjoram's own documented tradition runs through the classical Mediterranean writers (Dioscorides, Pliny) and the European herbals (Culpeper, Gerard, Grieve).

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