Health Benefits Of Savory

An herbal and natural path towards health, the popular culinary herb known as ‘Savory’ is widely used in East European and various American cuisines. Belonging to the mint family of Lamiaceae, the herb is scientifically termed as ‘Satureja hortensis’. Savory is an appreciated herb, used for spicing up certain food items. The essential mineral, vitamin and anti-oxidants content provided by its leaves and shoots are also beneficial in providing optimum health. It is also used for preparing pickles, seasoning salads and as spices for many meat dishes. This article provides you with details of the nutritional benefits of consuming savory. Apart from the culinary uses of savory, savory is also used in many pharmaceutical industries to obtain useful and curing drugs.

Nutrition Benefits Of Eating Savory

Savory is used in the treatment of uterine contractions, colics, headaches, coughing, tuberculosis, gastric disorders and urine retention.
Savory can also prove to be very effective against flu, if mixed in tea with chamomile and colt’s foot, sweetened with sugar candy. This tea mixture makes the body immune to all the infections and flu. Apart from the tea mixture, savory juice mixed in a proportion of 1:7 along with sugar syrup can also be used as a flu fighter. One spoon of this mixture should be taken each hour for effective healing results.
Spasmodic coughing can also be cured with the help of savory and black currant tea. Just guzzle the tea and get relieved from the distressful condition.
Savory plant is a package of medicinal property. Savory leaves and tender shoots contain high quality chemical compounds that are known to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing and health promoting properties. Along with these anti-oxidant properties, the herb is also rich in dietary fiber that helps in the reduction of LDL or bad cholesterol and increases HDL or good cholesterol levels.
The leaves of the savory plant contain many essential volatile oils like thymol and carvacrol and also linalool, camphene, caryophyllene, terpineol, myrcene and many other terpenoids.
Out of all the oil content in the herb, thymol has been scientifically proved to be having antiseptic and anti-fungal properties that helps the body’s immune system to improve drastically.
Savory is always used as a food addictive for its anti-bacterial properties. A phenolic compound, carvacrol present in savory, bottles up the growth of several bacterial strains like E.coli and Bacillus cereus, and thus protects the body from all bacterial attack. Carvacrol also gives a pleasant and tangy taste and marjoram like smell to the food it is added to.
Savory also helps in providing optimum health, as it is rich in several essential minerals and vitamins. The leaves and tender shoots of savory are excellent source of potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and selenium. Potassium plays an important role in the functioning of the cells and body fluids and monitors heart rate and blood pressure. The manganese content can be used by the body as co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase. The iron present in the herb is used up by the body for the formulation of red blood cells.
The herb is also a good source of various vitamins, such as B-complex group of vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin and pyridoxine. Savory, in its dry form, provides 1.810 mg of vitamin B-6 or pyridoxine, furnishing about 130% of RDA. Pyridoxine is very essential component and plays a crucial role of keeping up the levels of GABA in our brain, which helps as a stress buster.
The vitamin C present in savory makes the body resist various kinds of infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals. Vitamin A, on the other hand, is a fat-soluble vitamin and an antioxidant that helps in maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin and is also important in improving the vision. Consumption of savory also protects you from lung and oral cavity cancer, due to its rich vitamin A content.
As in the case of thyme, distilled tepid savory water can be used for throat gargling to get relief from sore throat and bronchitis syndrome. Savory dabs can prove to be extremely useful in rheumatoid afflictions, followed by high fever.
Having bath with savory, mint, chamomile, sweet calamus root, lime flowers, lavender, common elder, 0elisa, marjoram and milfoil is recommended by physicians. This treatment is especially recommended for children suffering from breathing problems.
Savory infusion can also be used in hot small amounts to heal edema and convulsions of pregnant women. You can also receive desired result, by using the infusion to treat diarrhea and nervousness.

Cooking Tips

Fresh summer savory can be used for garnishing different salads.
Savory is also used in preparing the popular savory herbal tea, which is considered to be a health drink.
The herb can also be used in preparation of seasonal soups and sauces.
Savory is also used with other spicy items to marinate chicken, fish and meat recipes.

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