Mentha piperita L.
The labiatae family is Labiatae, or the hyacinth family is Lamiaceae
What does it look like? Perennial herbaceous plant, very fragrant, 25-80 cm tall. The stem is four-sided, branched, the whole plant is bristly-hairy. The leaves are opposite, short-petiolate, ovate-oblong or lanceolate, sharp, saw-toothed. The flowers are collected in rings in leafless interrupted spike-shaped inflorescences, reddish-purple or whitish-purple. Blooms in June – August.
Where does it grow? Cold mint does not grow in the wild, it is cultivated as an industrial essential oil plant in the forest-steppe regions of Ukraine (with Chernihiv, Kyiv, Sumy, and Poltava regions), and it is also grown in gardens, gardens, and flower beds.
Many types of mint that grow above streams and ditches are used by the people as medicinal plants.
What and when are collected? Stems with leaves or only the leaves themselves before flowering. They dry quickly, but not in the sun.
When is it used? At home, well-ground mint leaves are added to dumplings with cheese – to stimulate and improve digestion, as a carminative and diaphoretic agent, to reduce nausea, as a remedy that helps with stomach and intestinal pains (menthol), with a runny nose, hoarseness, bronchitis, bronchiectasis (disinfects), nervous excitement, hand tremors, angina pectoris (together with valerian causes reflex expansion of coronary vessels). Mint has a choleretic effect, it is recommended for jaundice and gallstones (in addition to menthol 1-2%, the volatile oil also contains menthone, phellandrene, limonene, flavonoids (diosmetin), bitterness, carotene, chlorogenic acid).
Used in the form of tea. Take 1 tablespoon of leaves per 1 glass of boiling water, infuse for 10 minutes and drink 1 glass in the morning and in the evening. In case of indigestion, bad belching, diseases of the liver and gall bladder, 1 tablespoon of a mixture of common sandra grass, cold mint leaves , common celandine grass and brittle buckthorn bark in a ratio of 3:2:4:1 is infused for 20 minutes in 1 cup of boiling water and drink half a glass an hour after a meal.
As recommended by M. A. Nosal, after bleeding from the lungs and with excessive menstruation, with gastritis with increased gastric acidity without constipation, 2 tablespoons of a mixture of St. John’s wort, cold mint leaves, dill seeds, yarrow flowers, and cowberry grass in a ratio of 10: 5:5:5:1 is steamed for 2 hours in 2 glasses of boiling water, strained and drunk throughout the day, in sips. With catarrh of the stomach with increased acidity and constipation, also 2 tablespoons of a mixture of cold mint leaves , centuria grass, St. John’s wort, heather grass, and brittle buckthorn bark are infused for 8 hours in half a liter of boiling water, strained and drunk in half a glass 4 times a day, an hour after meals. With these diseases, you can take 4 more spoons with the top of a mixture of yarrow flowers, leaves of cold m’, buckthorn bark, St. John’s wort, dried marsh flowers, ergot, chamomile flowers, dill seeds, cumin seeds, valerian root and hop cones in a ratio of 4:4:4:6:3:3:2:2:2:2:1 insist on 1 liter of boiling water overnight in the oven. Drink 1 glass on an empty stomach, drink the rest 4 times during the day, an hour after a meal. Peppermint oil (Oleum Menthae) – 3-5 drops on sugar or water – and potato juice also help with increased acidity (see Edible potatoes).
To some extent, the bitterness and tannic and resinous substances of mint, in particular, a large amount of carotene, also act here.
Instead of infusion, you can use mint drops from mint leaves . 1 part of finely chopped dried mint leaves is poured with 20 parts of 30% alcohol and infused, shaking from time to time, for a whole day. Then squeeze, filter through cotton wool, add 1 part of peppermint oil and use 10 or more drops for diarrhea, intestinal spasms, cuts, poor digestion, nausea, etc. With bloody vomiting, O. P. Popov recommends using 1-2 teaspoons, twice a day, of a decoction of mint in vinegar (20 g per 200 ml of vinegar). Decoction (napar) of mint (also drops) is used for bathing small children, patients with rickets, scrofula and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Compresses of fresh mint leaves on the forehead and temples soothe a headache. Rinse your mouth with a decoction of mint several times a day if you have bad breath.
And also pay attention to the article Peppermint