Quality of thyme herb (Thymus vulgaris L.) from organic cultivation.

In five field experiments the quality of thyme herb and usefulness of Polish cultivar ‘Słoneczko’ for organic cultivation were tested. The following features were tested: dried herb yield, stem content in dried herb, essential oil content, nitrate content, macro- and microelements content and microbiological purity. Only from Słońsk thyme herb yield was higher compared with the yield from conventional cultivation though it contained high amount of stems. Thyme herb was characterized by higher content of essential oil and increased content of macro- and microelements except calcium. Evaluation of microbiological purity showed that for both types of cultivation herb contamination did not exceed standard for raw materials treated with hot water