MENTHA PIPERITA

Common name: Peppermint • Hindi: विलायती पुदीना Vilayati pudina, पेपरमिंट Peppermint • Marathi: पेपरमिंट Peppermint • Tamil: புதீனா Pudina • Malayalam: കര്‍പ്പൂരത്തുളസി Karppoora-Tulasi • Telugu: మిరియాల ద్రావకము Miriyala dravakamu • Kannada: ಮೆರುಗು Merugu • Bengali: পুদিনা Pudina • Oriya: ପୋଦିନା Podina • Urdu: Pudina پودینہ, Lana لعناع • Assamese: পদুনা Poduna • Gujarati: ફૂદીનો Phudino • Nepali: पुदिना Pudina

Botanical name: Mentha x piperita    Family: Lamiaceae (Mint family)

Synonyms: Mentha piperata, Mentha piperita

Introduction: Peppermint is a herbaceous perennial plant, growing to 30–90 cm tall from rhizomes. The rhizomes are wide-spreading and fleshy. Leaves are 4–9 cm long, 1.5–4 cm broad, dark green with reddish veins, and with a pointed tip and coarsely toothed margins. Leaves are very much like the mint leaves. The leaves and stems are usually slightly hairy. The flowers are purple, tiny, 6–8 mm long, 4-petalled, about 5 mm across. They are borne in whorls around the stem, forming thick, blunt spikes. Flowering is from mid to late summer. It was first described by Linnaeus from specimens collected in England - he treated it as a species, but it is now universally agreed to be a hybrid. is a hybrid mint, a cross between watermint (Mentha aquatica) and Spearmint (Mentha spicata). Peppermint is sometimes regarded as 'the world's oldest medicine', with archaeological evidence placing its use at least as far back as ten thousand years ago. Peppermint has a high menthol content, and is often used as a flavouring in tea, ice cream, confectionery, chewing gum, and toothpaste. The oil also contains menthone and menthyl esters. It is the oldest and most popular flavour of mint-flavoured confectionery. Peppermint can also be found in some shampoos and soaps, which give the hair a minty scent and produce a cooling sensation on the skin.

Chemical Constituents:

The main elements identified in the volatile essential oil of Mentha spp. are menthol (33-60%), menthone (15-32%), isomenthone (2-8%), 1.8 cineol (eucalyptol) (5-13%), menthyl acetate (2-11%) menthofuran (1-10%), limonene (1-7%), β-myrcene (0.1-1.7%), β-caryophyllene (2-4%), pulegone (0.5-1.6%) and carvone (1%) (Pitter & Ernest, 1998). The main active component of peppermint oil is menthol, which is responsible for its medicinal properties, whilst esters, such as menthyl acetate, provide the familiar minty taste and associated aroma (Spirling & Daniels, 2001).

Medicinal use

The essential oil from Mentha spp. is used to treat discomfort of the gastrointestinal tract, irritable bowel syndrome, myalgia and neuralgia, as well as oral mucosal inflammation, and also as an expectorant, an antimicrobial and an ingredient in many analgesic creams.