The great oregano experiment - does it kill lactobacilli?

The question of whether oil of oregano kills the good bacteria in the intestines has been on my mind lately so I decided to try adding it in various amounts to my yogurt before incubating it to see if it would prevent the lactic acid formation which thickens the yogurt. The results surprised me.

I used regular strength Oreganol. I heated raw milk up to 110 degrees and added my mother culture in the usual amount and mixed it in. I poured out 1/2 cup at a time and added 0 to 30 drops of Oreganol in increments to eight 1/2 cup containers and shook them vigorously. I put them in the incubator and shook them 4 more times during the 1st hour and then I let them set undisturbed for 4 more hours. All of the containers thickened the same as the control. The oil of oregano didn't seem to make any difference.

I believe that the oil of oregano returned to the surface fairly quickly after shaking. Perhaps it did not mix well enough with the milk to contact the lactobacilli very well. It was difficult to tell because the cream would also quickly rise to the top and the cream of this milk is quite yellow and it was hard to tell the difference in looks between the control and the 30 drop sample, maybe the 30 drop sample was slightly more yellow on the top, but not much.

I found one study that found that oregano INCREASED growth of lactobacillus acidophilus in yogurt:

http://www.idosi.org/wasj/wasj18%2810%2912/11.pdf


I had noticed in the past that Oreganol definitely killed the bacillus subtilis in Bio-Kult probiotic even though I was taking them a few hours apart. When I accidently forgot to take the Oreganol one evening I had a spitting headache (my usual and only symptoms from candida) several hours after taking the bio-kult and I had to back down to one capsule and work my way back up again without the Oreganol. The funny thing is that the dose of Oreganol that killed the bacillus subtilis didn't give me die off from the candida. However this dose of Oreganol does give my son die off symptoms, but it takes a few days to work up to the level of die off that he got when he started eating sauerkraut.

I don't know if I can conclude that oregano does not kill lactobacillus in vivo, but I have not been able to show that it does kill it either. I know that there have been reports of it killing lactobacillus but I think those experiments may have been done in culture dishes with a drop of pure oregano, and I don't think that imitates the conditions in the intestines very well.

Has anyone else seen experiments or studies that throw light on this subject?

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