The leaves can be used to make rasam and a herbal remedy (kashayam) that offers symptomatic relief from cold and sniffles. In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, it is batter fried to make pakodas. Fresh leaves are used to scent laundry and hair. The herb is used as a substitute for oregano to mask the strong odors and flavors of fish, mutton, and goat. In basic research, the effects of the essential oil were tested with other plant essential oils for possible use as a mosquito repellant. The plant was later brought to Europe, and then from Spain to the Americas, hence the name Spanish thyme. The plant also currently grows in mainland India. From Southern Africa it would have been carried by Arabs and other traders to Arabia, India and Southeast Asia along the Indian Ocean maritime trade routes. Distribution and habitat Ĭoleus amboinicus is native to Southern and Eastern Africa, from South Africa ( KwaZulu-Natal) and Eswatini to Angola and Mozambique and north to Kenya and Tanzania, where it grows in woodland or coastal bush, on rocky slopes and loamy or sandy flats at low elevations. The seeds (nutlets) are smooth, pale-brown, roundish flattened, c. Filaments are fused below into a tube around the style. Trumpet-like widened limb 2-lipped, upper lip short, erect, puberulent, lower lip long, concave. The calyx is campanulate, 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long, hirsute and glandular, subequally 5-toothed, upper tooth broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, abruptly acute, lateral and lower teeth acute. The bracts are broadly ovate, 3–4 cm (1.2–1.6 in) long, acute. įlowers are on a short stem (shortly pedicelled), pale purplish, in dense 10-20 (or more) flowered dense whorls (cymes), at distant intervals, in a long slender spike-like raceme. The taste of the leaves is described as being similar to the one of oregano, but with a sharp mint-like flavor. The aroma of the leaves can be described as a pungent combination of the aromas of oregano, thyme, and turpentine. They are thickly studded with hairs (pubescent), with the lower surface possessing the most numerous glandular hairs, giving a frosted appearance.

The margins are coarsely crenate to dentate-crenate except in the base. Leaves are 5–7 cm (2.0–2.8 in) by 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in), fleshy, undivided (simple), broad, egg/oval-shaped with a tapering tip (ovate).

The stem is fleshy, about 30–90 cm (12–35 in), either with long rigid hairs (hispidly villous) or densely covered with soft, short and erect hairs (tomentose). Description Ī member of the mint family Lamiaceae, Coleus amboinicus grows up to 1 m (3.3 ft) tall. The species epithet, amboinicus refers to Ambon Island, in Indonesia, where it was apparently encountered and described by João de Loureiro (1717–1791). Common names in English include Indian borage, country borage, French thyme, Indian mint, Mexican mint, Cuban oregano, soup mint, Vicks plant, Spanish thyme. Coleus amboinicus is considered to be native to parts of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India, although it is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere in the tropics where it is used as a spice and ornamental plant. Coleus amboinicus, synonym Plectranthus amboinicus, is a semi- succulent perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae with a pungent oregano-like flavor and odor.

Thyme in spanish mexico