- Latin name
- Origanum vulgare
- Family
- Mint family (Lamiaceae)
- Origin
- Turkey, Greece, Spain
- Parts used
- flowering tops and leaves
- Raw materials
- essential oil
- Extraction
- steam distillation
- Olfactory group
- aromatic (spicy herbs)
- Position in the pyramid
- top note and heart
- Synthetic substitutes
- carvacrol, thymol, herbal bases
Oregano is a perennial herb with small lilac-pink flowers that grows on the sunny, stony slopes of the Mediterranean. Familiar to everyone as a pizza seasoning, it also yields an essential oil for perfumery.
How it smells: warm, spicy and herbal: dry leaves in the sun, a light pungency, a faintly camphoraceous and woody shade. Oregano sounds appetising in the kitchen, but in perfume dry and refined.
The main substance of oregano oil is carvacrol, a close relative of thymol from thyme. These warm herbal molecules are strong, so oregano is used in perfume very carefully, only as an accent.
What it pairs with: with thyme and rosemary — Mediterranean herbs, with basil and tomato leaf — a “green garden”, with lemon — fresh spice, with vetiver and cedar — dry masculine fragrances, with fig — warm summer compositions.
Good to know: the name oregano comes from the Greek words “oros” (mountain) and “ganos” (joy) — “joy of the mountains”.
