![]() The herb has been used as a remedy for indigestion since Ancient Egyptian times. Peppermint is a natural hybrid of water mint ( Mentha aquatica ) and spearmint ( Mentha spicata ) and was first cultivated in England in the late seventeenth century. ![]() ![]() The United States is responsible for producing 75% of the world's supply of peppermint. This generally takes place shortly before the plant blooms, which occurs in the summer (July through August) or during dry, sunny weather. When ready for harvest, it is always collected in the morning, before noon sun reduces the leaf essential oil content. The plant is harvested when the oil content is highest. There are more than 25 species of true mint grown throughout the world. Peppermint belongs to the Lamiaceae family and grows throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. It has light purple flowers and green leaves with serrated edges. Despite the soil-borne virus Verticillium dahlia, which forced mint-oil production to move from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s, commercial mint production kept on climbing.Peppermint ( Mentha piperita ) is an aromatic perennial plant that grows to a height of about 3 ft (1 m). Mint became an established market in North America from the nineteenth century onward. Eventually, farmers in New York and New Jersey realized they could grow mint themselves, especially peppermint and spearmint, which are easily cultivated in moist conditions. Advertisements for mint oil indicate that the original American colonies were importing the product from Britain, often for medicinal recipes. Mint started becoming big business in the 1700s. Another Dumbarton Oaks volume, the 1597 Generall historie of plantesby John Gerard, claims that mint was “a marvellous wholesome for the stomach.” The same kinds of mint leaves that Culpepper and Gerard endorsed are still popular today in digestive and medicinal teas, suggesting that looking to the past lives of plants can help us to trace the lineage of how we use them today. ![]() A seventeenth-century herbal by English astrologer and apothecary Nicholas Culpepper, housed in the Rare Book Collection at Dumbarton Oaks, claims the mint plant could be used to treat over forty different ailments. Some believed that mint had even greater virtues: The physician Tobias Venner wrote in 1620 that the excellent fragrant smell of both red garden mint and spearmint “doth greatly comfort the braine and spirits, stirre up the senses, especially the memorie, and make the heart cheerefull.” He even touted mint as something of the original study drug, advising that those who “leade a studious kinde of life” should regularly take time to enjoy the smell of mint.Įarly modern herbals-published texts that listed and described plants in terms of their medicinal uses-also highlighted the therapeutic value of mint. The powder of mint was thought to aid in killing worms in the stomach, and when mixed with milk could be used for this purpose even with infants. Dietaries from the late 1500s suggest that mint juice was effective against poison, and the mint herb encouraged circulation of good blood if eaten raw. In early modern Europe, the entire mint plant was considered useful. Greek physicians such as Galen and Dioscorides taught that mint kept people from vomiting blood and speculated that it could prevent women from becoming pregnant. Pliny the Elder believed that when applied to the temples in the form of a broth, mint could get rid of a headache. In ancient Greece and Rome, the sweet smell of mint was used in funerary rites and to scent the body. From the fields of ancient Egypt to the present-day American Pacific Northwest, mint has a long history of use for a broad range of purposes that involve the entire plant, not just its oil.įor example, one of the oldest surviving medical texts in the world, the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BC, cites mint as a digestive and a tool to soothe flatulence. Clearly, our fascination with mint goes beyond oral health. ![]() While the market value of mint might not match that of tobacco or cacao, commercial mint-oil products have become part of our daily lives, including not only toothpaste but also chocolate, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and fragrances. While agricultural improvements have slowly increased mint-oil yield from existing crops, the authors show that metabolic engineering is one of the most “realistic short-term alternatives for enhancing peppermint oil yield and composition.” Ongoing scientific research looks to further capitalize on peppermint acreage in the United States, in part due to “increasing market pressure for lower-cost mint oils,” according to a recent study. One of the oldest surviving medical texts in the world from 1550 BC, cites mint as a digestive and a tool to soothe flatulence. ![]()
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