In the present work, the Libyan wild-growing Thymus capitatus essential oil (EO) was
evaluated for its manufacturing properties. In the organic food industry, no chemical
additives can be used to prevent microbial spoilage. As a consequence, the essential oils
(EOs) obtained from organic aromatic herbs and spices are gaining interest for their
potential as preservatives. The organic Thymus capitatus, which are common in Libya and
widely used in the meat industry, could be used as antibacterial agents in food preservation.
The aims of this study were to determine or evaluate the good safe dose can be added to
soft drinks.
Thyme plant is one of the natural plants that have Aromatic Perfumes liked by human
being, and one of the natural resources that sought by lot of researcher sand scientists to
use it in scientific research and studies of perfumes and pharmaceuticals and used as flavour
in making a lot of industrial products. Components of thyme oil sold as a spice in the
Libyan market extracted by steam distillation, the ratio of aromatic volatile of thyme oil was
2.548% and specific gravity up to 0.9609, while the optical refractive index 1. 5111 where
thyme oil extracted will be used as input in some food products for human consumption, the
study required conduct some laboratory experiments with respect to toxicity to find the
dose that kills 50% of the experimental animals, and then to prove that it has no damage
when used repeatedly, in this study, the dose that kills 50% of mice and minimal dose lethal
to all mice and maximum non-lethal dose was reached, the use of Libyan volatile thyme oil
because of its great and direct relationship, especially its use in the manufacture of soft
drinks, we are confident now that the use of 0.1 ml of thyme oil to prepare 1 liter of soft
drink for human consumption is safe even if used repeatedly by man every day, and the dose
reached was 3.84 mg, which killed 50% of mice, weighing 25 grams. This experiments was
conducted at faculty of Medicine in Libya.

Keywords: essential oil; Thymus; antibacterial; antioxidant; Steam distillation;