PEPPERMINT - essential oil
Its impressively long history often gives it the prestigious title as the 'world’s oldest medicine'
Peppermint is a hybrid mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint. The plant is indigenous to Europe and the Middle East and is now widespread in cultivation in many regions of the world. Peppermint typically occurs in moist habitats, including stream sides and drainage ditches. Being a hybrid, it is usually sterile, producing no seeds and reproducing only vegetatively, spreading by its rhizomes. If well placed it can grow anywhere, with a few exceptions. Outside of its native range, areas where peppermint was formerly grown for oil often have an abundance of feral plants, and it is considered invasive in Australia, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand and the United States.
Health benefits
• Anti-septic
• Anti-spasmodic: relaxing and cooling on nerves and muscles (coughs, aches, abdominal, intestines, muscle strains/cramps/convulsions)
• Disinfectant: fungal, bacterial (internal and external), particularly stomach, oesophagus, intestinal, skin - scabies, dermatitis, athlete's foot
• Carminative: abdominal/intestinal (reduces gas), headaches, stomach aches, indigestion, loss of appetite, chest pain, vomiting, cramps
• Improves concentration
• Emenagogue: irregular menstruation, obstructed menses and early menopause, promotes secretion of estrogen
• Stimulant: secretion of hormones, discharge of enzymes, gastric juices and bile, nerves, brain function, blood circulation
• Restorative: all the organ systems (repairs damage, aids in recovery from injuries and wounds, and regaining strength after lengthy illness)
• Insecticide: mosquitoes, white ants (termites), ants, flies, moths
• Insect repellent: mosquitoes
Warning: There are no reported dangers of using this essential oil, but as an emenagogue, it should not be taken by pregnant women.