Thymol

Thymol is a product of Thymus vulgaris, a native of Portugal. Spain, Southern France, Italy, and the mountainous parts of Greece. It has for several centuries been cultivated in England as a garden plant, and has long been known to yield a highly aromatic essential oil. Under the name camphor of thyme, an apothecary at the court of Berlin named Neumann, 1725, described this substance, which was called thymol by Lallemand (369a) in 1853, thus giving a name to a substance that, in little use in itself, had ever been valued in domestic medicine as well as by the medical profession in its natural association and combination as a part of oil of thyme. Under the name oil of origanum, oil of thyme has been a popular product obtained by the distillation of this herb, being used as an ingredient in domestic liniments and in veterinary medicine. Its use by the medical profession is even yet much limited.

The History of the Vegetable Drugs of the U.S.P., 1911, was written by John Uri Lloyd.