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Oregano

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Food and agriculture;
Plants

                   iOregano
   Flowering oregano
   Flowering oregano
           Scientific classification

   Kingdom:  Plantae
   Division: Magnoliophyta
   Class:    Magnoliopsida
   Order:    Lamiales
   Family:   Lamiaceae
   Genus:    Origanum
   Species:  O. vulgare

                                Binomial name

   Origanum vulgare
   L.

   Oregano or Pot Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) is a species of Origanum,
   native to Europe, the Mediterranean region and southern and central
   Asia. It is a perennial herb, growing to 20-80 cm tall, with opposite
   leaves 1-4 cm long. The flowers are purple, 3-4 mm long, produced in
   erect spikes. The name means "Joy of the Mountains" .

Cultivation and uses

   Oregano growing in a field.
   Enlarge
   Oregano growing in a field.

   Oregano is an important culinary herb. It is particularly widely used
   in Greek and Italian cuisines. It is the leaves that are used in
   cooking, and the dried herb is often more flavourful than the fresh.

   It is a conditio sine qua non in Italian cuisine. It is used in tomato
   sauces, fried vegetables and grilled meat. Together with basil, it
   makes up for the character of Italian dishes; see parsley on Italian
   variants of bouquet garni.

   Oregano combines nicely with pickled olives, capers and lovage leaves.
   Unlike most Italian herbs, oregano works with hot and spicy food, which
   is popular in southern Italy.

   Oregano is an indispensable ingredient for Greek cuisine. Oregano adds
   flavour to the Greek salad and is usually used separately or added to
   the lemon-olive oil sauce that accompanies almost every fish or meat
   barbecues and some casseroles.

   The plant is less popular in other Mediterranean cuisines, but still
   important in Spanish, French cooking.

   It has an aromatic, warm and slightly bitter taste. It varies in
   intensity; good quality is so strong that it almost numbs the tongue,
   but the cultivars adapted to colder climates have often unsatisfactory
   flavour. The influence of climate, season and soil on the composition
   of the essential oil is greater than the difference between the various
   species.

   The related species Origanum onites (Greece, Asia Minor) and O.
   heracleoticum (Italy, Balkan peninsula, West Asia) have similar
   flavours. A closely related plant is marjoram from Asia Minor, which,
   however, differs significantly in taste, because phenolic compounds are
   missing in its essential oil. Some breeds show a flavour intermediate
   between oregano and marjoram (gold marjoram = gold oregano)

   Pizza

   The dish most associated with oregano is pizza, an open pie of bread
   dough baked with a top of tasty ingredients. Its relatives have
   probably been eaten in Southern Italy for centuries. According to the
   legend, the first pizza was made in 1889 when King Umberto and his wife
   Margherita sojourned in Napoli (Naples). At this time, white bread
   flavoured with tomato paste was a popular food for the poor masses. To
   honour the Queen, a local baker devised a richer pie. In addition to
   the red tomato paste, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves
   were employed to reflect the colours of the Italian flag. This
   invention became known as pizza Margherita and spread all over Italy
   and now, over the rest of the world.

   Today's pizza relies more on oregano than on basil, and use a multitude
   of further ingredients: Ham, sausage, shellfish, mushrooms, artichokes,
   onion, garlic, olives, capers, anchovies and more make pizza a
   sophisticated delicacy, although it had once been the poor man's
   sandwich.

   Mexican Dishes

   The very similar, but stronger, taste of Mexican oregano (see below) is
   popular not only in its native country Mexico, but also in the south of
   the U.S., where it is frequently used to flavour chili con carne (meat
   stewed with chiles and sometimes beans) or other Mexico-inspired dishes
   like Pozole. For this purpose, it is mostly combined with several
   varieties of chillies and paprika, dried garlic or onion and cumin.

Health benefits

   Oregano is high in antioxidant activity, particularly due to a high
   content of phenolic acids and flavonoids ( PMID 16218659, PMID
   12730411). Additionally, oregano has demonstrated antimicrobial
   activity against food-borne pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes (
   PMID 16218659). Both of these characteristics may be useful in both
   health and food preservation. In the Philippines, Oregano is not
   commonly used for cooking but is rather considered as a primarily
   medicinal plant, useful for relieving childrens coughs.

Other plants called oregano

   Mexican Oregano stems from the plant Lippia graveolens ( Verbenaceae)
   and is closely related to lemon verbena. It is a highly studied herb
   that is said to be of some medical use and is common in curandera
   female shamanic practices in Mexico and the Southwestern United States.
   Although only loosely related to oregano, Mexican Oregano has a very
   similar flavour, albeit stronger. It is increasingly traded, especially
   in the United States. Its strong aroma makes it an acceptable
   substitute for epazote leaves if the latter are not available; this
   wouldn't work the other way round, though.

   There is a significant taxonomic confusion about the term "oregano" in
   Mexican cooking. Several plants are named thus in different parts of
   Mexico, and there is little clear information about those. Some plants
   that have been identified as "Mexican Oregano" are Poliomintha
   longiflora, Lippia berlandieri, and Plectranthus amboinicus (syn.
   Coleus aromaticus), also called Cuban oregano.

   In dried form, oregano bears a similar appearance to marijuana. A
   popular urban legend is the story of an inexperienced person
   unwittingly purchasing the spice from an unscrupulous dealer instead of
   the drug. Oregano was used as a euphemism for marijuana in the movie A
   Few Good Men, when Tom Cruise's character is told that "oregano" helps
   fear of flying.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregano"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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