Peppermint

Mentha piperita

Relatively easy to grow, but the slugs like it. Familiar to may as a tea, which is particulary good to sip after an evening meal, as it is digestive, carminative, and mildly sedating. Has a strong aromatic taste, and is wrth adding a pinch to any tea blend just to give it a bit of flavour. You don't need to add very much as just a small amount of both dried herb or tincture will make its presence felt in any mixture. For this reason it useful to use @ 10ml per week of the tincture in any prescription where there are foul tasting herbs or herbs that might be a bit harsh on the digestion.

To make a tincture of the fresh plant use the leaves and flowers, finely chopped. Ratio: 1:3 or 1:2; 45% alcohol.

Actions

• Carminative
• Cooling
• Anti-nausea
• Analgesic
• Choleretic
• Anti-spasmodic
• Anti-diarrhoeal
• Anti-septic
• Anti-parasitic

Uses

• Essential oil has a cooling effect on the skin by causing vasoconstriction, followed by vasodilation and rubefacient effect. This also has a slight anaesthetic effect. A few drops mixed with water and rubbed onto the forehead is a very good way of treating tension headaches.
• The essential oil is also a powerful antiseptic and antiparasitic agent
• In clude essential oil in creams for painful and itchy skin conditions - eczema, psoriasis, shingles.
• Tincture or tea for intestinal colic, flatulence, spastic colon, stomach cramps, dispepsia
• Nausea and vomiting
• Chills and mild fevers