More than one billion human adults worldwide are overweight [8]. Obesity has not only been an image and self esteem problem for those suffering it, it has also other resultant health hazards which include diabetes, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome, all worldwide medical problems [4]. In spite control of diet and exercise are cornerstones of the management of excess weight, researchers have been also investigating other ways to control weight, the research into products that slow the absorption of carbohydrates through the inhibition of enzymes responsible for their digestion [4]. Among some of them we have the so-called alpha-amylase and glucosidase inhibitors.

The common white bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) produces an alpha-amylase inhibitors or starch blockers, which have been characterized and tested in numerous clinical studies [4], demonstrating their ability to cause weight loss with doses of 500 to 3000 mg per day, in either a single dose or in divided doses [4].

PHASEOLUS VULGARIS

Family: Phabaceae
Genus: Phaseolus
Common name: Common bean, White bean, Bean tabera.

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris), a perennial herbaceous plant from the Lamiaceae family that grows up to approximately 40 cm tall [1] and is used nowadays as a flavoring agent of the Mediterranean diet.

Thyme was used by the Greeks in their baths and by the Egyptians who more than 2000 years ago used it to embalm their faraons and ancestors, probably due to the amount of antimicrobial active constituents found on Thyme essential oils, its most documented property and a quality that shares with other essential oils as for example lavender essential oil [2], both of them active against multi-drug resistant clinical strains of Escherichia coli bacteria [3,4].

Recently, researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University, driven by these known antibacterial properties of Thyme, tested the effects of this herb, marigold and myrrh tinctures on Propionibacterium acnes, the bacterium that causes acne by infecting skin pores and forming the well-known spots so characteristic from this bacterial infection. The results were published in a news release in the Society for General Microbiology website and are quite encouraging while not surprising. Image left: Wild thyme (NH) by David Short under Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.0).

THYMUS VULGARIS

Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Thymus
Common name: Thyme.