Herbs & Herbal Remedies @ Green Papaya

Marvelous Menthol

Family: Labiatae(includes Balm, Basil, Catnip, Horehound, Marjoram, Pennyroyal)

Genus and Species: Mentha Piperita (peppermint); M. Spicata, M. Vitidls, M. Aquatica, M. Cardiaca (spearmint)

Also known as: Hundreds of different kinds of mint

Parts used: Leaves and flower tops

Have you ever had an after-dinner mint? These familiar candies evolved from the ancient custom of concluding feasts with a sprig of mint to soothe the stomach.

Science has lent support to this age-old practice, as well as many other Healing uses of these herbs, best known as the source of menthol, which flavors candies, gums, toothpastes, and mouthwashes.

The Double Mints

Peppermint and spearmint are both used in herbal Healing and have similar effects, but peppermint is the tastier and more potent. It is also the more recent arrival.

Spearmint was the original medicinal mint. Peppermint appeared later, a natural hybrid of spearmint species. But authorities aren’t exactly sure which species combined to form peppermint, or when the spicier mint actually appeared. All the mints were considered one plant, mint, until 1696, when British botanist John Ray differentiated them.

Mint was mentioned as a stomach soother in the Ebers Papyrus, the world’s oldest surviving medical text. From Egypt, mint spread to Palestine, where it was accepted as payment for taxes. In Luke (II :39) Jesus scolds the Pharisees: “You pay tithes of mint and rue … but have no care for justice and the love of God.”

Mythical Origins

From the Holy Land, mint spread to Greece and entered Greek mythology. It seems Pluto, god Of the dead, fell in love with the beautiful nymph, Minthe. Pluto’s goddess-wife, Persephone, became jealous and changed Minthe into mint. Pluto could not bring Minthe back to life, but he gave her plant form a fragrant aroma. “Minthe” evolved into the mints’ genus, Mentha.

Greek and Roman homemakers added mint to milk to prevent spoilage and served the herb after meals as a digestive aid. The Roman naturalist Pliny wrote that mint “reaniMatés the spirit” and recommended hanging it in sickrooms to assist convalescence. The Greek physician Dioscorides considered mint “heating,” and therefore a promoter of lust. Other Greek and Roman herbalists prescribed mint for everything from hiccups to leprosy.

Chinese and Ayurvedic physicians have used mint for centuries as a tonic and digestive aid and as a treatment for colds, cough, and fever.

Medieval German abbess/herbalist Hildegard of Bingen recommended mint for digestion and gout.

Seventeenth-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote: “[Mint] is very profitable to the stomach … especial to dissolve wind [and] help the colic. … It is good to repress the milk in women’s breasts … and a very powerful medicine to stay women’s courses [stop menstrual flow]. It helpeth the biting of a mad dog … and is good to wash the heads of young children against all manner of breaking out, sores, and scabs ….” But Culpeper disagreed with Dioscorides on mint and sex. Instead of calling it a lust promoter, Culpeper considered it “an especial remedy for venereal I sexual j dreams and pollutions in the night I nocturnal emissionsJ, being applied outwardly to the testicles.”

Shortly after Culpeper, peppermint and spearmint were differentiated, and herbalist decided the former was the better digestive aid, cough remedy, and treatment for colds and fever.

Menthol Rubs and Other Uses

Colonists found the Indians using native American mints to treat cough, chest congestion, and pneumonia. The colonists introduced spearmint and peppermint, and the plants quickly went wild.

By the late 19th century, the Eclectics prescribed peppermint for headache, cough, bronchitis, stomach distress, and hysteria (menstrual discomforts), and added it to laxatives to minimize intestinal cramping and disguise their unpleasant taste.

The Eclectics also valued spearmint but considered it “somewhat inferior to peppermint” except for its “superior” ability to treat fever.

Chemists distilled menthol from peppermint oil in the early 1880s. The Eclectic text, King’s American Dispensatory, touted its “active germicidal properties,” and its “considerable anesthetic power” when applied to wounds, burns, scalds, insect bites and stings, eczema, hives, and toothache. The Eclectics also used menthol vapors in inhalants and chest rubs to relieve asthma, hay fever, and morning sickness.

Contemporary herbalists recommend peppermint externally for itching and inflammations, and internally as a digestive aid and treatment for menstrual cramps, motion sickness, morning sickness, colds, cough, flu, congestion, headache, heartburn, fever, and insomnia. Some herbalists consider peppermint and spearmint interchangeable, but most call peppermint more potent. As they do with so many other aromatic herbs, herbalists also recommend these herbs for relaxing herbal baths.

Both spearmint and peppermint owe their value in Healing to their aromatic oils. Peppermint oil is mostly menthol. Spearmint oil contains a similar chemical (carvone). These chemicals have similar properties, but as the herbalists of old believed, menthol is the more potent.

Digestive Aid - Thumbs up for the after-dinner mint.

Menthol appears to soothe the smooth muscle lining of the digestive tract, making it an antispasmodic. German and Russian studies show peppermint also may help to prevent stomach ulcers and stimulate bile secretion. Thus, it may confer added benefits as an ingredient in the antacids Turns, Gelusi!, BiSoDo!, and Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia.

Anesthetic - The Eclectics were on the right track about menthol’s “considerable anesthetic power.” It’s an ingredient in many pain-relieving skin creams: Solarcaine, Unguentine. Ben-Gay, and Noxzema Medicated Cream.

Decongestant - Menthol vapors do, indeed, help relieve nasal, sinus, and chest congestion. Menthol is an ingredient in Mentholatum and Vicks VapoRub. Peppermint is a Food and Drug Administration-approved remedy for the common cold, primarily because of its decongestant action.

Infection Prevention - The Eclectics may also have been on the right track about menthol being “actively germicidal.” Peppermint oil in the test tube kills several bacteria and the Herpes simplex virus, which causes cold sores and genital herpes, findings which lend some credence to peppermint’s traditional uses in the treatment of wounds and bronchitis.

Women’s Health - Antispasmodics soothe not only the smooth muscle lining of the digestive tract. but other smooth muscles, such as the uterus, as well. Several herbals recommend peppermint as a treatment for morning sickness. The Toxicology of Botanical Medicines, however, suggests medicinal concentrations of peppermint may promote menstruation.

Pregnant women who want to try peppermint for morning sickness should stick to dilute, beverage-tea concentrations rather than more potent medicinal infusions. Women with a history of miscarriage should not use this herb while pregnant. Other women may try peppermint to bring on their periods.

Rx for Mints

For wounds, burns, scalds, and herpes, apply a few drops of peppermint oil directly to the affected area.

For a possible decongestant or digestive infusion, use 1 to 2 teaspoons of dried herb per cup of boiling water. Steep 10 minutes. Drink up to 3 cups a day. Peppermint has a sharper taste than spearmint, and it cools the mouth.

In a tincture, take ¼ to 1 teaspoon up to three times a day. In an herbal bath, fill a cloth bag with a few handfuls of dried or fresh herb and let the water run over it.

Dilute mint preparations may be given cautiously to children under age 2.

As dried plant Material, neither spearmint nor peppermint has been reported to cause problems. On rare occasions, however, the sharp, pungent fragrance of concentrated mint oils have caused gagging in young children. If you give mint teas to infants, use dilute infusions.

Alert: If ingested, pure menthol is poisonous. As little as a teaspoon (about 2 grams) can be fatal. Do not ingest pure menthol. Pure peppermint oil has also been found to produce toxic effects, such as cardiac arrhythmias. So stay away from pure peppermint oil, too.

Other Cautions

Peppermint and spearmint are included in the Food and Drug Administration’s list of herbs generally regarded as safe. For otherwise healthy non-pregnant, non-nursing adults, they are considered safe in amounts typically recommended.

Mints should be used in medicinal amounts only in consultation with your doctor. If mints cause minor discomforts, such as stomach upset or diarrhea, use less or stop using it. Let your doctor know if you experience unpleasant effects or if the symptoms for which the herb is being used do not improve significantly in two weeks.

Almost Too Easy to Grow

Spearmint is a perennial that reaches 2 feet and spreads by underground root runners. It has the mint family’s characteristic square stems with wrinkled, lance-shaped, serrated, 2-inch leaves, and flower spikes with whorls of small white, pink, or lilac flowers, which bloom in midsummer.

Peppermint looks like spearmint, except it grows somewhat taller, spreads by surface runners, has stems with a purplish cast, and has longer, less-wrinkled leaves.

Mints crossbreed so easily, it’s often impossible to tell what’s sprouting from seeds. The best way to propagate true peppermint or spearmint is to use root cuttings. Any piece of root with a joint or node can produce a plant. Contain your mint bed or plant in containers. In rich, moist, well-drained soil, under full sun or partial shade, spreading mints may become pests.

Frequent cutting encourages bushiness. Leaves may be harvested as they mature Cut the entire plant within a few inches of the ground when the first flowers appear. Most species become woody after a few years. Dig them out and replant new root cuttings.