What are culinary herbs?
Culinary herbs are fresh or dried parts of plants, whose potent and intense properties allow their use as flavorings. Most of the herbs we use today as seasonings were originally medicines. They served for centuries as the principle medicines of the times due to their many health benefits. For the cook, herbs are primarily plants which add flavors to foods and drinks, i.e. a seasoning.
Why use herbs ?

Herbs have been valued throughout history for both their culinary uses as well as their health benefits. Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) had a repertoire of 300 remedies that included cinnamon, rosemary and mint.

Mediterranean diets include, among other things, a liberal use of herbs. These diets have been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Herbs are natural functional foods, as they provide benefits beyond basic nutrition. Culinary herbs contain natural substances that play a role in cardiovascular health, metabolic health, combating inflammation, healthy aging and cancer prevention.(1)

The protection provided by herbs may be due to their potent antioxidant effects, but herbs provide us with much more. Culinary herbs contain high concentrations of phenolic substances and antioxidants, some have 1000 times more than other vegetables.(2) In fact, culinary herbs have a much higher phenolic and antioxidant concentration than medicinal herbs.(3)

In a normal diet, intake of even small amounts of herbs may contribute significantly to the total intake of plant antioxidants(4), and be an even better source of dietary antioxidants than many other food groups such as fruits, berries, cereals and vegetables.

Plants are virtuosos of biochemical invention, and herbs contain many phenolic and terpene compounds, molecules that act together to benefit human health.



(1) Craig WJ. Health-promoting properties of common herbs. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70(3 Suppl):491S-499S, 1999 Sep.

(2) Dragland S. Senoo H. Wake K. Holte K. Blomhoff R. Several culinary and medicinal herbs are important sources of dietary antioxidants.Journal of Nutrition. 133(5):1286-90, 2003 May.

(3) Zheng W. Wang SY. Antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds in selected herbs.Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. 49(11):5165-70, 2001 Nov.

(4) Ninfali, Paolino, Mea, Gloria, Giorgini, Samantha, Rocchi, Marco, Bacchiocca, Mara  Antioxidant capacity of vegetables, spices and dressings relevant to nutrition.British Journal of Nutrition. 93(2):257-266, 2005 February.