Thyme: The Genus Thymus PDF

Preface

When Roland Hardman asked us to edit the book "The Genus Thymus" within his remarkable series "Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Industrial Profiles" it was a big challenge for us because the amount of material concerning the genus Thymus has increased continuously and immensely up to the present. We knew that it would not be an easy job to compile all the results revealed by more than 2000 scientific publications. Nevertheless, from the beginning we were enthusiastically dedicated to this task - as editors and authors - always convinced that we were doing a very valuable job discussing Thymus under different aspects. We both spent several years with scientific studies on the botany, chemistry and systematology of Thymus always being aware of the urgent need of a compilatory work as a fundamental basis for further research projects. Therefore with the publication of this book not only the wish of the series editor but also our own wish for a comprehensive report on the status quo of the genus Thymus came true.

Everyone who has ever dealt with the genus Thymus knows that Thymus vulgaris L. deserves close attention. Its pleasant aroma and flavour as well as its potent pharmacological activities give him the predicate of one of the most popular plants widely used as flavouring agent, culinary herb, herbal medicine, and it is used in perfumes as well as being a commercial source of the monoterpene thymol. Therefore Thymus vulgaris L. became the central species in quite a few contributions to the book, especially in those dealing with thyme as a source of commercial products and as an herbal drug on the one hand and on the other hand in those articles discussing field culture, harvesting, post-harvest handling and processing of thyme. Nevertheless for us the presentation of the material covering the whole genus Thymus has been an aim of prime importance. Therefore we made every endeavour to find authors who were willing to elucidate the scientific achievements of the whole genus and discuss the problems of this species-rich plant genus, of a taxonomically complex group present in all temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. The result is a review of the history, the botany, and the taxonomy of the genus Thymus including several aspects of the population structure in thyme as well as the complete essential oil and flavonoid chemistry of the genus. Following our own scientific inclinations a separate chapter was dedicated to the problem of essential oil polymorphism in the genus Thymus.

We hope we have succeeded in presenting an informative overview of the information presently available on the genus Thymus: botany, taxonomy, chemistry, and pharmacology which also takes into account several applied aspects such as field culture, harvesting and processing of thyme. The readers may consider this book to be a reliable basis and feel stimulated to invest further efforts into the research of this promising genus which still shows many gaps which are worth filling during the coming decades.