Project Description
Cretan Dittany (Origanum dictamnus), or Hop marjoram.
🍃This ancient Minoan herb is unique to the rocky mountains and surroundings of Crete.
Used for thousands of years as a medicinal healing herb with hundreds of references by ancient authors.
🍃Aristole, the Greek philosopher wrote about when wild goats were wounded by hunters arrows, the goats were found to eat dittany, which naturally healed their wounds.
Stories say that Aphrodite went especially to Crete to collect dittany when the founder of Rome, Aeneas was wounded by an arrow.
Hippocrates used this herb to heal stomach aches. In modern Crete it is used as a tea for many ailments and as an anti aging facial beauty product and an anti cellulite treatment.
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Recent studies in 2015 found the essential oils of dittany to be anti microbial and antioxidant (Mitropoulou G et al).
🍃There have also studies showing it to be anti fungal against candida.
Also named ‘Erondas’ (Love), by the Cretans as a bunch of dittany was offered as a gift of love to women, knowing the men would have climbed rocky cliffs to gather the herbs and it is also used as an aphrodisiac.
🍃This herb is listed as a threatened species on the IUCN Red list, so seeing it grow here in the wild is a real gift.
Dittany is collected around Ebaros (nr Heraklion) and used as a base for Martini!