Mint in ancient herbal books

Mint, mentha, mintha. It is not only an ingredient of toothpaste or sweets, but it is actually a green plant as well. Its use started a long time ago. For example, Ovidius described how the daughter of the watergod, called Menthe or Minthe, was loved by the god of the underworld. However, his jealous wife changed her into a plant. My, my, my, those gods, but which ever way you look at it, as a result we now can enjoy all these fresh mints and curious stories.

Other celebrities from that time, Hippocrates and Dioscorides, often mentioned mint in their writings about medicine. Plinius prescribed its use in 41 healing potions, some of them mentiong mint separately as a medicine for stomach problems and recuperation and as a carminative. Mint plants were spread all over the Roman empire by Roman soldiers. As early as the ninth century, it was cultivated in many European monastery gardens. In the Middle Ages it was not used in the kitchen only, but its crushed leave also served for whitening teeth, curing mouth ulcers, healing bites of dogs with rabies, relieving pain caused by wasp stings, preventing coagulation of milk and scaring off rats and mice.

Many species of mint

Mints interbreed readily. There is a strong tendency towards hybridising, according to unimaginative herb specialists. Ancient writers of herbal books had quite a different way of putting this into words. For example, Walahfrid Strabo, abbot of the monastery in Reichenau, used the following description of 'Mentha' in the eighteenth strophe of his Hortulus herb poem from 840: 'If somebody can quote by heart all the powers, species and names of mint, this person is also capable of enumerating all the fish swimming in the Red Sea.”

Consequently, we will not try to mention them all. Moreover, it is not clear which mint species were mentioned in ancient herbal books. It is beyond dispute that water mint (Mentha Aquata L.) is often found in historical texts. To this very day, it grows on the shores of streams, its stem bearing round buds, whereas most mint species have pseudo spikes. A very aromatic variant is field mint ( Mentha Arvensis L.), whose flowers are clustered in the axils. By contrast, horsemint (Menta Longifolia Hudson) lacks a pleasant odor. It has long lanceolate leaves, its flowers cradled in long pseudo spikes. Horsemint is often mentioned in herbal books, usually with the addition that its medicinal use is rare.

Squaw mint

An ancient medical mint species is squaw mint (Mentha Pulegium L.), which is found prevalently in countries surrounding the Mediterranean. It is a plant with elliptical leaves and  multiple small dense clusters of flowers growing at regular distances above each other. The name Pulegium indicates the quality of this herb to repel insects. The fact is, the Romans used it to kill fleas (pulex).

A species that is even more widespread is spearmint (Mentha Spicata L.). Its leaves are quite similar to those of horsemint, be it a little smaller. Likewise, it is a hybrid of horsemint and round-leaf mint. German spearmint is a subspecies of Mentha Spicata and has wrinkled leaves, a thick vein system and frizzly edges. Unlike other mints, its ethereal oil does not contain menthol, which accounts for its different scent, being more similar to caraway.

It is beyond doubt that the best-known mint species is peppermint (Mentha Piperita). This mint was probably not a household word until the end of the seventeenth century. Consequently, many of the historical uses of the other mint species were passed on this new hybrid Mentha Piperita.

Mint for digestion

It is not an exaggeration to say that mint tea is definitely highly recommended in case of digestive problems, such as nausea, urge to vomit, intestinal spasms or a spastic colon, which is a common disease nowadays. Its ethereal oil can relieve a headache, just rub a drop on your temples. Please mind the dosage, as it can be irritable to your eyes. Of course, Mentha Piperita is useful for many other complaints, but it would not be wise to bother you with an endless list of symptoms like plenty of herbal books do.

Sources: www.todio.nl