Determination of the chemical composition of thyme and investigation of the biological activities

Thyme is a perennial grassy plant or bush commonly used in our country. Thyme is used in medicine, cosmetic and food industry due to the essential oil it carries. In ancient times thyme was known and used as spice and herb. It is reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the amount of the herbs used for both therapeutic purpose and as a spice all around the world, is about twenty thousand. Today nearly 1/3 of the 300 herbs family grown in nature, include volatile fatty acid. Their usage as a medicine prepared from the extracts of the herbs reaches up to 2700s B.C in China. As in the other countries of the world lots of herbs that are known as medicinal plants found by trial and error are used for the treatment of the illnesses in our country, too. Also, Anatolian people's usage of the wild herbs as a treatment goes back to ancient times. The names of herbs recorded in the recipe formulas of Hititian medical tablets are shown as a proof of it. It is recorded that nearly 500 of them are used commercially. The number of the herbs that are recorded in the Turkish pharmacopeia is about 140. However, the number of the herbs commonly used as a treatment is much more than this. Thymus and origanum species which are colloquially known as thyme are commonly used as a spice and in order for antimicrobial, antidiabetic and antioxidant by making them tea and its water in the treatment of various diseases. Except for the essential oil thymus and origanum species carry, researches on phenolic materials like flavanoids, phenly acid, etanoit, essential activities and toxicities like saponins and iridoids are quite little. In this Thesis, thyme that grows in Kastamonu region which is called thymus praecox is aimed to be gathered. Researchers were done upon the determined plants chemical compound a biological activity. After these preparation periods, extraction process of the plant species will be done and after the extraction process, biological activities in the extractions obtained from thyme will be known and by completing the chromatographic analysis of the chromatographic analysis of the existing structures, it is aimed at examining the percentages of the components related to HPLC analysis.