Field mint - Mentha arvensis. Family Lamiaceae (Labiatae) - Lamiaceae (Labiatae).
Who doesn't know the smell of mint! We meet it everywhere: in fragrant soap and tooth powder, medicines and gingerbread, tinctures and liqueurs. True, in the industrial production of these products, another species is used - peppermint. But the most common is still field mint. Seeing it in nature, it is impossible to resist and not pick a delicate fragrant leaf. And after spreading it in the palms of your hands, you can inhale with pleasure the unique aroma of field mint. It is believed that the Latin name Mentha was given in honor of a fairy nymph - patroness of meadows, gorges, rivers and springs.
And indeed, widespread in the forest zone, field mint grows abundantly in damp and well-lit places: in meadows, along the banks of rivers and lakes, in swampy forests and even along ditches.
Looking so unassuming mint has been recognized and loved since ages. As early as the eleventh century. It was written about in ancient Russian books, and Roman patricians revered field mint for its fragrance and even partly deified it. Students in those days (and right up to the Middle Ages) wore wreaths of field mint, which supposedly stimulated mental activity. Houses sprayed the halls with peppermint water and rubbed the herb on the tables.
Field mint is a low (up to 45 cm) perennial herb with stems spreading along the ground and raised at the ends. The leaves of field mint are small, oblong and acuminate, and are supratrophically arranged along the stem. And in their axils already in June appear small flowers with pink or pink-purple hairy corolla, collected in dense whorls (Fig. 19). During the flowering period of field mint, which lasts until September, collect the "harvest". The raw material is the entire plant, except for the roots and rhizomes of field mint. But the most fragrant are the leaves and flowers.
The fragrance of field mint is given by essential oil (in leaves - up to 2.75 %, and in inflorescences - up to 6.0 %), and its main constituent is menthol. There are terpenes, carotene, vitamin C, sugars, fatty acids in mint.
Field mint has always been very popular in folk medicine. Decoctions of field mint increase the secretion of food glands, increase intestinal peristalsis and increase appetite. Therefore, field mint is used in chronic gastritis, some intestinal diseases, colitis. Experiments in recent years have even shown its choleretic effect. Field mint has the most
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is renowned as an excellent diaphoretic and carminative. Field mint also has a calming effect on the central nervous system. Menthol, being a vasodilator, is included in drops for treating runny nose and in Validol. Has field mint wound-healing and anti-inflammatory effect, so it is used for gargling the throat in sore throats. Field mint is an indispensable component of various medicinal teas: vetrogonny, choleretic, diaphoretic. Chinese medicine recognized field mint as an eye herb and recommended it for washing eyes, and Russian peasants bathed children with scrofula and rickets in mint decoction.
Field mint is no less popular as a food plant. Field mint leaves are a wonderful spice that improves the flavor and smell of any dish: meat, fish, and flour. Kvass infused with mint is delicious. It is also added to various confectionery products. Mint is a good mellifer. Peppermint honey is clear, amber in color, with a pleasant refreshing taste.
There are 22 known species of mint in our flora. Along the wet banks of rivers and lakes in southern Russia and. Long-leaved mint grows in Western Siberia. Its essential oil contains eugenol, which is used as an analgesic and disinfectant in dental practice. And in folk medicine infusion of field mint is recommended as a sedative, anticonvulsant, analgesic and diaphoretic.
The need for peppermint essential oil is so great that not only wild mint but also some cultivated species are used. Field mint produces about 3000 tons of essential oil worldwide, but this is not enough. Therefore, peppermint is now widely cultivated, the birthplace of which is considered to be England. By crossing wild species, peppermint was bred already in the XVIII century. In the Far East, Sakhalin mint is cultivated and found in wild form; another species, Daurian mint, is also widespread there. Both are widely used by the local population and are promising for industrial harvesting..
