SPEARMINT PROFILE

By Jeanne Rose ~ April 2020

Synopsis: Yes, there is a difference between Spearmint and Peppermint, defined by their content of carvone and menthol as well as botany, folklore, odor description, properties. The uses of Spearmint described.

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INTRODUCTION ~ Just don’t call it mint, call it what it is. Is it Spearmint, Peppermint, or Menthol-mint (Mentha arvensis)?  There are 13 species of the Mentha genus. Here they are. The ones with the ‘x’ are made by humans by crossing one species of the plant with another, they are considered sterile and usually do not produce seed and have to be duplicated by cloning or by replanting the underground stems. Those in bold will reproduce by seed. But all types of mint can be spread by their stolons to form clonal colonies.           
In this post we will mainly discuss the Spearmint and next month will concentrate on the Peppermint.
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•Mentha aquatica L. – water mint
•Mentha arvensis L. – wild mint  or Japanese menthol mint
•Mentha x gracilis Sole – ginger mint
•Mentha x muelleriana F.W.Schultz – mint ([arvensis ssp. arvensis × suaveolens]
•Mentha x piperita – Peppermint [aquatica x spicata]
•Mentha pulegium L. – pennyroyal
•Mentha x rotundifolia (L.) – Egyptian mint  [longifolia × suaveolens]
•Mentha x smithiana Graham – Smiths mint or Redstem Mint [aquatica, spicata, arvensis & hard to tell from Peppermint]
•Mentha spicata L. – spearmint (the mint of the ancients)
•Mentha suaveolens Ehrh. – apple mint
•Mentha x verticillata L. – whorled mint [aquatica × arvensis] 
•Mentha x villosa Huds. – mojito mint [spicata × suaveolens] 

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COMMON NAME/LATIN BINOMIAL ~ Spearmint, Mentha spicata

            Botanical Family ~ Lamiaceae

            Naming Information ~ Genus name comes from Minthe or Menthe, a water nymph in Greek mythology. And from a legend of the beginning of the Earth,  “…When Man came, he saw the plants and remembered some of his past in the wonderful Kingdom, he smelled the wonderful scents and saw pictures in his Mind. So, whenever a man was asked the name of the fragrant plants, he called them mint.” —Kitchen Cosmetics, p. 78

COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN ~ Native to the Mediterranean.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PLANT, HABITAT & GROWTH:  Spearmint is a very hardy, perennial herb with bright green, fragrant leaves, that sets seeds, that quickly exhausts the soil and needs to be replanted regularly via the underground or over-ground stems or seeds.  Many Mints behave in this manner. This species can easily hybridize with other Mentha species to form hybrids. This mint LOOKS different than either Peppermint or Lemon Balm. The green is softer in Spearmint than the bluish Peppermint, and it looks somewhat like Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)  but not as hairy on the leaves. In Spearmint the leaves have little hairs on the backside or dorsal surface and the stems are red while in Lemon Balm the hair is on the top or ventral surface of the leaf and the stems are green. The smell is very eponymously Spearmint with none of the menthol from Peppermint or the lemon scent of Lemon Balm.

            Spearmint was once called M. longifolia or M. viridis. It is a perennial that grows to 30 inches, glabrous (free from hair or down; smooth) with strong and sweet scent; leaves are sessile and lanceolate, to 2 inches long, acute serrate, arranged along square red stems, petioles about 1/16^th inch long; inflorescence is variable; calyx campanulate, teeth nearly equal, [all the petals of a flower called] the corolla is lilac, pink or white. Summer is the season. Origin not known; naturalized widely in Europe. Widely cultivated as sweet herb and for essential oils. Several cultivars. ²

PORTION OF SPEARMINT PLANT USED IN DISTILLATION, HOW DISTILLED, EXTRACTION METHODS & YIELD ~  The over-ground tops and flowers of Spearmint are harvested, as, after maximum bloom, the oil content in the plant decreases. The plants are cut and allowed to dry on the ground, 2 or more days, depending upon the weather, until ‘clover dry’, that is, NOT brittle.  They are taken to the various distilleries, packed into the tubs, moistened by the steam, sealed in and steam-distilled.

           “There are two chemotypes of Spearmint dependent upon where they are grown. In Egypt, one had both good carvone and limonene and a better yield (grown in Siwa Oasis), while the other analyzed from Cairo had less quantity oil but with a higher percentage of carvone.”⁸     
            IF you wish to see a distillation of Spearmint go to https://peppermintjim.com/ and for the distillation of Spearmint https://peppermintjim.com/our-process/

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            Yield ~ The over-ground plant is steam distilled.  “A 3,000 lbs. charge requires up to 30-50 minutes and produces over 20 pounds of oil” 375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols, p. 142. One acre of Spearmint may yield 35-40 lbs. of oil.⁵

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Distillation as such is an entirely natural phenomenon.
When, raising your head you look at the clouds in the sky, those are but the evaporation visible patterns. And when you tread upon the early morning dew, it is the condensate of the night.”…  Georges Ferrando

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            CO₂ Extraction – Peppermint and Spearmint oils were extracted from cut green plants and field-dried hay with liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide at 297 to 316 K and 6 to 18 MPa. Solvent treatment was varied from 6 to 30 g CO₂/g dry plant material. Extraction time was varied from 4 to 9 hours. Extraction vessel charge sizes were 4.4 and 33 L. Downflow of carbon dioxide through the bed of mint plants was more effective than upflow. Essential oil compositions and attainable yields were nearly the same as those by steam distillation when single-pass mode of CO₂ with depressurization to atmospheric pressure was used for oil recovery. The recovery of the terpene constituents was reduced when using depressurization to 3–6 MPa for oil recovery and recycling of CO₂. The flavor and fragrance of the carbon dioxide mint extracts were closest in quality to actual mint plant leaves, compared to mint oils produced by conventional steam distillation.¹

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            ODOR DESCRIPTION ~ Spearmint and Caraway have the same component of scent, carvone, but a different mirror-image isomer. Spearmint has a fresh, herbal, green and minty odor with an odor threshold of 43 ppb (part per billion) while Caraway has a fresh, herbal and green, but spicy odor with an odor threshold of 600 ppb. An easy experiment is to mix equal parts of each of these essential oils and then pass the bottle around to students and have them guess what they are smelling.  Because they both contain the same molecule, carvone, but a different isomer of it, you will have guesses equally on both sides of the scent and some people will be totally unable to figure it out. After smelling both, you will be able to isolate and identify each scent but when mixed together it becomes more difficult.  This is a wonderful exercise for an aromatherapy class.

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CHEMICAL COMPONENTS ~ You will find numerous people and numerous websites that state that Spearmint has menthol. Spearmint DOES NOT contain menthol unless it is a specifically-bred or a hybrid variety that has been bred specifically for this. Since Spearmint is used to modify the scent and flavor of Peppermint, this may be where the mix-up in the plant began with people.  In most of the GC/MS charts I have looked at, Spearmint does not contain menthol. In a few, I have seen menthol at less than 1% but here it could be that some Peppermint or Menthol-mint was mixed into the batch?
            Spearmint does contain up to 56% l-Carvone, Terpenes, Limonene, Phellandrenes, and, sometimes, Linaloöl and Cineol.
      Carvone is the same molecule that is shared with Caraway and the difference is that the molecule is chiral. Carvone occurs in both Caraway and Spearmint and accounts for their scent, a mirror-image compound, an identical lookalike (in the mirror) but a very different odor. They are perceived as smelling differently and that is proof that olfactory receptors must contain chiral groups, allowing them to respond more strongly to one odor or the other.

            The chemistry of Brazilian Spearmint oil,  (Mentha spicata), major compounds were carvone (67%), limonene (14.3%), muurolene (2.3%), and myrcene (2.1%). There was no menthol.

           Carvone is considered to be an antioxidant. Results were compared with a standard antioxidant, α‐tocopherol. The results of the test indicate that S‐carvone possess high antioxidant activity compared to α‐tocopherol.⁷

           As described above the main components are carvone for the scent and limonene, myrcene, and others. It is possible to distinguish by taste and odor between the dextro- and laevo-rotatory form of carvone, dextro-carvone in Caraway seed oil, and laevo-rotatory carvone in Spearmint herb oil. I have only seen one paper out of 25 that listed menthol as a component in Spearmint (Mentha spicata) and that was at 1.88% of the total.  This paper co-listed Peppermint and Spearmint together.

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PHYSIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES

……..Solubility – Spearmint is soluble in 1 volume of 80% alcohol and is turbid with more (lesser percentage) than that. If you make a hand sanitizer starting with 3 oz of  95% alcohol, add 4-5 drops of Spearmint essential oil, mix, and then add 1 oz. of water to reduce the percentage of alcohol to about 70%. You will see the turbidity of the product.     

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HISTORICAL USES ~ The herb tea has been widely used as a tonic drink almost everywhere it has been introduced.
……………The following refers to Spearmint or wild Mint, not Peppermint. In the first century A.D., the naturalist Pliny wrote: “The smell of mint (Spearmint) stirs up the mind and appetite to a greedy desire of food.”³ (Plinie’s Natural History First Century AD. Translated by Philemon Holland.). He recommended binding the head in a crown of mint, which delights the soul and is good for the mind. Pliny, along with Hippocrates and Aristotle judged it ‘contrary to procreation’, while the Greeks were of the opposite opinion: they forbade their soldiers to eat (Spear)mint because it so incites a man to love, diminishing his courage. It was found that the Greeks, not Pliny, have been shown to be correct.
                In the 17th century, wild mint or Spearmint took a foothold in what is now Great Britain. Found growing in the wild, it was first cultivated in 1750, spreading to the continent in 1770. The English herbalist Culpeper prescribed the herb as a ‘great strengthener of the stomach’. During the 1800s, English herbalists and doctors alike used (Spear)mint in special Family Dispensatory Chests, which contained “those drugs and herbs with which one person, at least, in every village ought to be provided.”

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INTERESTING FACTS ~ Spearmint tea is poured after every meal in Egypt. One of the more interesting properties mentioned for Spearmint tea is that that could help treat mild hirsutism (hairiness) ) in women.¹⁰ Drink up to 5 cups/day.¹⁰ Maybe this is one of the reasons it is so enjoyed as a tea.

            The oil extracted from Native Spearmint is used in Michigan and is considered highly concentrated. One pound will flavor 135,000 sticks of gum. Chewing gum companies regularly blend Spearmint and Peppermint oils to maintain a consistent and specific flavor. An advantage to growing mint is farmers may store the oil for several years if market prices fall.⁹

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GENERAL PROPERTIES OF SPEARMINT

Spearmint is an anti-inflammatory, calming, mucolytic, an antioxidant, and a tonic for the digestive system. It has a wonderful ability, when inhaled, to create a feeling of joy and happiness and therefore makes an excellent addition to stress relief blends. It is also packed with antioxidants and good for digestion, has been said to have anti-fungal properties, as well as the properties indicated for all sorts of respiratory problems and chronic bronchitis.⁴

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Antioxidant and antibacterial activities and composition of Brazilian spearmint (Mentha spicata L.)..Author links. —https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2013.07.007 … Brazilian Spearmint, Mentha spicata) The major compounds of the essential oil were carvone (67%), limonene (14.3%), muurolene (2.3%), and myrcene (2.1%).
•The plant leaf methanol extract has strong antioxidant activity.
•The plant component carvone is an anti-oxidant.
•The essential oil extracted by hydro-distillation has good antimicrobial activity.
•37 compounds were identified and carvone being the major compound in the oil.

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Spearmint Properties (by IG=ingestion or IN=inhalation or AP=application)
      Application: Antiseptic.  Digestive.  Fever reducing.  Anti-inflammatory.
Ingestion:     Digestive.  Antispasmodic.  Digestive tonic.
            Inhalation:    Stimulant.  Antidepressant.  Tonic.  Calmative.  Mucolytic.                                        

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Spearmint PHYSICAL USES & HOW USED (IG OR AP)

APPLICATION — The essential oil is used in many body-care products for soothing the skin and treating acne and relieving skin irritations.  This is a wonderful herb to use in any bath herb, and the essential oil can be added to a skin lotion or skincare products. It is so refreshing and healing. Both the herb and the essential oil are excellent additions to products, blends, and foods.  Please read Jeanne Rose Herbal Body Book for 400 pages of great information and formulas.

           Try the Spearmint and Peppermint Lip Balm, roll-ons, room misters, and inhalers from Crosby Mint Farm. This is a family-run company that began over 100 years ago. See the photo below. https://peppermintjim.com/product-tag/crosby-mint-farms/

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INGESTION — The herb and essential oil can be used for digestive ailments.  Nausea.  Vomiting.  Gums.  Candies.  Dental products.
•The herb tea is taken for digestive disturbances and is lightly fever-reducing.
          •Chewing gum ~ Of all the flavors incorporated into chewing gum, Spearmint and combination mint flavors have been some of the most popular. Most widely used have been Peppermint and Spearmint as well as blends of the two. Typically, these two flavors are added to chewing gum in the form of their essential oils. Peppermint oil is derived by distillation of the aerial parts of the perennial herb Mentha x piperita L. Oil of Cornmint, derived from Mentha arvensis L. var piperescens, can also be blended with Peppermint oil. Oil of Spearmint is derived from the distillation of several varieties of this genus. The principle species and varieties are Mentha spicata L. and Mentha verticillata, and Mentha cardiaca. —part of a patent application filed in 1989 and 2020-03-28 Application status is Expired – Lifetime

INHALATION — Spearmint can be added to any blend that is used for respiratory ailments and chronic bronchitis. It has a relaxing and happy odor.                                                              
•Diffuse/Diffusion — Spearmint oil can be added to almost any blend where you want the scent of refreshment and joy. Try it. It will make you feel joyous.

EMOTIONAL USES (AP OR IN)— Spearmint is applied to the temples for headache; it can be inhaled as a memoristic antidepressant, and it alleviates mental strain and fatigue as well as acting as a tonic for the entire system. 
            •Calming Spearmint E.O. is used by inhalation and blends can include Bergamot, most of the Citrus fruit oils, Cumin, Eucalyptus citriodora, Lavender, Marjoram, Spearmint (calming and joyous), and their comparable hydrosols used as spray mists.
•Emotional/Energetic Use – Uplifting.  Reduces nervous stress and tension. Ylang Ylang Extra with a touch of Spearmint is a delicious scent to inhale for headaches or to soothe your depression. Dilute with a carrier oil or alcohol and put into a small bottle so that you can carry it around with you and inhale it whenever.
            Scott Cunningham in his book, Magical Aromatherapy, suggests that Spearmint an element of Air and whose magical influences are healing, protection, and promoting sleep and when inhaled it helps one with visualization to speed healing;  wrap the fresh sprigs in a bag and inhale the bag as you fall asleep, visualizing that it is wrapping you in protective energy.

THE FORMULA FOR NINON BATH HERBS

            •This is one of the first herbal baths that I ever made. I found the formula in an old (260 years old then) and made it in 1969, wrote it up for my book, Herbs & Things and have used it ever since. It was #1 in my New Age Creations formulary.
________“Ninon de Lenclos, properly Anne de Lanclos, was born in 1620 and died eighty-five years later after having lived an exciting and scandalous life as a French courtesan, epicurean, and confidante to such literate men as Molière and Scarron and to the famous libertins of the period. She was forcefully retired to a nunnery, finally released, wrote La Coquette Vengée, retired from love (though she almost committed incest with her grandson at the age of seventy), and in her will left one thousand francs to Voltaire. She was a celebrated beauty. When she died in 1705 at eighty-five years, her body had retained her youthful curves; her skin remained moist and smooth. Her beauty secrets were many and varied but the one she felt to be most important was her daily herbal Bath:” …
•1 handful each of dried or fresh
Lavender flowers, Rosemary, Spearmint, Crushed Comfrey Root and Thyme.
             Pour a quart of boiling water over the mixture, cover, and steep for 20 minutes. Strain. Pour the entire contents into your bathtub, collecting the solids in sieve or sock, and soak for at least 20 minutes.
            For a nice variation, add 1 handful of Rosebuds.”

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GENERAL HERBAL USES OF SPEARMINT – Mentha spicata

Medicinal uses ~  The Herb Spearmint has been used extensively for its medicinal properties for over 3000 years. It can be used internally as a tea, can be used to make poultices or balms, or can be inhaled to make use of joyful quality.  Mints medicinal properties include stomachic, stimulant, calmative, disinfectant, and nervine. The following afflictions are treated with Spearmint herb and/or essential oil:          
•Colds – The Flathead and Kutenai Indian tribes drank native wild mint or Spearmint teas to treat both the coughs and fevers associated with colds.
            •Digestive Ailments –  An overall aid to most digestive disorders, it is especially beneficial in the treatment of flatulence, diarrhea, and colic, retching, and vomiting. A poultice of Spearmint leaves over the stomach region also helps to aid in digestive distress. Spearmint tea also helps to promote appetite.
            •Female afflictions- Spearmint can be used to treat strong menstrual cramps. In Near Eastern societies it helps to increase sexual desire, suppressed menstruation, decreases a mild supply of nursing mothers, and helps to relieve the breast of curdled or congested milk via compress. Spearmint tea reduces hirsutism in women.¹⁰
            •Fertility  – The Japanese and Arabs believe that Spearmint tea, or chewing several fresh leaves helps to promote fertility in the male.
      •Heart Ailments  – The Blackfeet Indians, as well as other tribes, chewed wild Spearmint leaves to treat chest pains and strengthen heart muscles.
            •Nervous System- All Spearmint teas have a soothing quality and are used to treat nervousness, fatigue, nausea, vertigo, hiccoughs, palpitations, anger, confusion, depression and mental strain.
       •Rashes – Spearmint oil can be rubbed on poison ivy rash, diaper rash and athlete’s foot.
     •Toothache  – A drop of Spearmint essential oil can be used directly on the source of pain to help alleviate the pain from both cavities and gum disease.

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BLENDING AND PERFUMERY ~ Spearmint has a bright and joyous scent and can perk up any perfume that is heavy on the floral scent. It mixes well with Ylang Ylang. You just need a bit. Start with 10 drops of Ylang Extra and 1 drop of Spearmint. Smell it. Then add either more of the floral or more of the green herbal scent depending upon what pleases you. Remember that Spearmint contains carvone and not menthol and that it has an herbaceous and green note.
            Spearmint blends with the herbs such as Basil, Lavender, Marjoram and Rosemary; it blends with spices such as Black or green Pepper, Ginger; with florals such as Jasmine and  Ylang Ylang and with many of the citrus scents like Grapefruit and Lemon. These all can be used as mixtures for room diffusing.

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JEANNE ROSE’S TOMATO TALES – Spearmint

            In the early days of my keeping records of all the essential oils that I used, I also kept an emotion chart that I used with my students to get their favorite scents for certain emotions. This was in 1972 and I called the chart, “Scent & Psyche: Experience Aroma”. I had a paper file of dozens of these charts from all my previous classes and had included the information in a book that I had written called “Aromatherapy – Inhalations for the Mind”. If you have never heard of that book that is not a surprise as I took the written prototype with me when I  went to New York in 1975 to speak before the “Fragrance Foundation” and lost it along with my suitcase at the airport and all my lecture notes as well on the way to the Plaza Hotel where I would be staying.  It was a devastating loss to me not only because I lost my lecture notes but also that it was the only draft of the book that I was delivering to the publisher.  This book once was written but was not rewritten and eventually evolved into “The Aromatherapy Book –  Applications & Inhalations” and that can be obtained from my own website at this time.
……….One thing I learned from the collection of these charts is that many dozens of my American students always said that Spearmint made them happy, that it smelled like their childhood, that is smelled like chewing gum, but my Asian students thought it smelled like cleaning fluids.  Scents do have power, and they also have cultural differences depending upon where you grew up and where you experienced them.
           Europeans also do not have the same ‘feelings’ about Spearmint as Americans do even though Spearmint is indigenous to  Europe and Asia and then became naturalized in North America where it became a favorite.
            If you want to learn more about this, please enroll in my study program called The Aromatherapy Studies Course. Chapter 8 is a large part of that program.

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SPEARMINT HYDROSOL is known to have calming, cleansing, and carminative effects on the digestive system when taken as a drink and is used externally as a spray for skin irritations, is calming to the senses, and cooling on the skin. This hydrosol is a great skin toner, and if kept cold in the refrigerator it makes a wonderful relieving mist during a ‘hot flash’.

            PLEASE NOTE: A true hydrosol should be specifically distilled for the hydrosol, not as a co-product or even a by-product of essential oil distillation. The plant’s cellular water has many components most are lost under pressurized short steam runs for essential oil, or by using dried material. We recommend that the producers specifically distill for a product by using plant material that is fresh.

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Fig.7a – Crosby Mint Farm Native Spearmint. Please note the smaller and more narrow leaves than the previous picture.

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HERBAL USE OF SPEARMINT

            •HERBAL TEA of SPEARMINT. As previously stated, science has shown that 2-5 cups per day of Spearmint tea will relieve hairiness and PCOS in women.¹⁰.  It is also delicious to drink and is very refreshing.

            •HERBAL BATHS, SHAMPOOS, AND HAIR CONDITIONERS.  It is so easy to customize your hair, skin and body care products with herbs. And Spearmint is ideal for this.  I am in love with a mixture of Spearmint and Rosemary herb in my shampoo and hair conditioner.  I just get my favorite shampoo or conditioner and customize it by adding ¼ cup of a strong infusion of these herbs to 1-oz of the product and then proceed to wash or condition as usual. is 400 pages of skincare formulas and recipes using both herbs and essential oils. It is available from jeannerose.net.

            •CULINARY USE OF SPEARMINT ~  Spearmint has been used extensively in the preparation of foods throughout the world. Though seldom cooked, mint can be used to make teas, jellies, candies, and gums. In the Middle East, mint leaves are added to salads, which makes it more flavorful, as well as adds high concentrations of vitamins A, C and carotene. Mint (spearmint) sauce is the basic accompaniment to roast lamb and veal and is said to help in the digestion of these (immature) meats. [see The Herbal Guide to Food for more uses.]
Mentha spicata could also be considered an antioxidant source. In fact, spearmint and spearmint extracts are often used as preservative agents to delay the oxidative degradation that occurs in food during processing or over time with storage.⁶

•Cocktails and Beverages.

            •The Ginger Rogers as submitted by that super innovative, and historically accurate barman, Marcovaldo Dionysos is one of his two favorite cocktails with Spearmint. Both were featured on the menu at Absinthe Brasserie & Bar when it opened in 1998 in San Francisco, and the Ginger Rogers was the most popular drink on the menu for many years. He says, “I like to refer to the Ginger Rogers as a “Mojito, backward in high heels”, referring to the dance steps she had to perform with Fred Astaire”. It was adapted from the “Favorite Cocktail” from Drinks, by Jacques Straub (1914).

10-12 fresh Spearmint leaves
2 oz London dry gin
¾ oz fresh lemon juice
¾ oz Ginger syrup
2 oz. Ginger ale
            Muddle the mint in a highball glass, then add the remaining ingredients, add ice, stir and garnish with a Spearmint sprig.

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            •Cocktails with Spearmint Include The famous ‘Mint julep”  from Kentucky that you have to drink in May at the start of the  Kentucky Derby – except maybe, in 2020, when we are all ‘sheltering in place’ because of the COVID-19 Virus. The Kentucky Derby has been run continuously since 1875 and only postponed once.

            •Here is a recipe for a Brazilian Cachaca Julep. 2 ½  parts Cachaca, ¾ parts whiskey or Southern Comfort which was beloved by Janis Joplin, ¾ parts sugar syrup, ¾ parts lime juice and 6 pieces fresh Spearmint leaves added at the end. Add ice to the shaker and then all of the ingredients, shake well. Strain into a tall glass and garnish with the Spearmint.  I also like to mash some of the Spearmint with the sugar syrup first.

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           •Herb and flower kinds of butter are a delicious and easy way to add flavor to foods.  Herb butters are simply freshly picked herbs that are finely chopped and blended into sweet (unsalted) butter, mixing it thoroughly and then refrigerating so that the flavor and scent permeate the butter. You must contain them in a glass jar or Pyrex container so that the scents of the fridge do not permeate the delicate scent and flavor of the butters.  Also, label it so you will remember one from the other. These butters are delicious on vegetables or spread upon toast or crackers. They are necessary when having a tea party. They have not been widely used since Victorian times and may have simply dropped out of fashion…
            In most cases, fresh herbs are preferable to dried herbs and flowers.  Mashed dried seeds such as Anise seed are also used. And margarine will not do, you must use good sweet butter. Finely chop the fresh herbs or flowers and then mash them into the butter, cream your herbs or flowers into the softened butter with a fork or back of a wooden spoon. Two tablespoons of herb part for every quarter-pound stick of butter.  Add just a touch of Lemon juice or white wine vinegar to bring up the flavor of the herb and refrigerate overnight to allow fully flavor to develop. Spearmint butter is good with meats such as lamb and on cookies and pastries. —The Herbal Guide to Food.

            •Spearmint jelly is really delicious. I used to make it whenever we had lamb for dinner.  I have a very simple recipe in my Herbal Guide to Food, p. 216.  It only says mint, but I can assure you I was discussing Spearmint. When I wrote this book, I was not as particular as I am now about the name of which mint, I was discussing.

KEY USE ~ Dentifrice products and as an antidepressant.    

RESOURCES ~ There are many herb stores, nurseries, home product-makers, skincare companies that make and use Spearmint. When you look at the label make sure the mint, they mention is Spearmint, Mentha spicata, for that sweet and joyous herb that we all enjoy so much.

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SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Influence of Drying on the Flavor Quality of Spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) • M. Consuelo Díaz-Maroto, M. Soledad Pérez-Coello, M. A. González Viñas, M. Dolores Cabezudo • Cite this: J. Agric. Food Chem. 2003, 51, 5, 1265-1269; Publication Date: January 22, 2003 • https://doi.org/10.1021/jf020805l • Copyright © 2003 American Chemical Society
Abstract. Spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) was dried using three different drying methods:  oven-drying at 45 °C, air-drying at ambient temperature, and freeze-drying. The effect of the drying method on the volatile compounds and on the structural integrity and sensory characteristics of the spice was evaluated. The volatile components from fresh and dried spearmint samples were isolated by simultaneous distillation−extraction (SDE) and analyzed by gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 28 compounds were identified, carvone, limonene, and 1,8-cineole, in that order, being the main components in all of the samples. Oven-drying at 45 °C and air-drying at ambient temperature were the methods that produced the best results. An increase in monoterpenes was observed in all of the dried samples, except in the freeze-dried samples that underwent freezing at −198 °C. Freeze-drying resulted in substantial losses in oxygenated terpenes and sesquiterpenes. The effect of each drying method on leaf structure was observed by scanning electron microscopy. From a sensory standpoint, drying the spearmint brought about a decrease in herbaceous and floral notes together with an increase in minty odor.
Keywords: Mentha spicata L.; spearmint; drying; volatile compounds

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 Abstract/Scientific Data: Inhibition by the essential oils of peppermint and spearmint of the growth of pathogenic bacteria. H. Imai, K. Osawa, H. Yasuda, H. Hamashima, T. Arai and M. Sasatsu … The effects of the, essential oils of peppermint (Mentha piperita L.), spearmint Mentha spicata L.) and Japanese menthol mint (Mentha arvensis L.), of four major constituents of the essential oil of peppermint, and of three major constituents of the essential oil of spearmint, on the proliferation of Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) were examined. The essential oils and the various constituents inhibited the proliferation of each strain in liquid culture in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, they exhibited bactericidal activity in phosphate-buffered saline. The antibacterial activities varied among the bacterial species tested but were almost the same against antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive strains of Helicobacter pylori and S. aureus. Thus, the essential oils and their constituents may be useful as potential antibacterial agents for inhibition of the growth of pathogens.

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REFERENCES ~

¹ https://doi.org/10.1016/0896-8446(92)90002-2 • Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of peppermint and spearmint
² Staff of L. H. Bailey Hortorium • Hortus Third • Macmillan Publishing. 1976
³ Plinie’s Natural History First Century AD. Translated by Philemon Holland.
⁴ The Mint Family – Uses of Mints ~ Mints are not Just for After Dinner By Linda L. Hein with additions by Jeanne Rose
⁵  Guenther, Ernest. The Essential Oils. Vol III, p. 679.  Krieger Publishing. 1974
⁶ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6274304/
⁷ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10826070600674893?src=recsys
⁸ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00217-003-0802-4
⁹ http://geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/mint.html
¹⁰ https://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0015/ea0015p282 (there are many articles about hirsutism and Spearmint tea)

Landing, James E. American Essence, A History of Mint in the United States. Kalamazoo Public Museum. 1969

Mojay, Gabriel.  Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit.  Rochester, Vermont:  Healing Arts Press, 1999.

Rose, Jeanne.  375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols.  Berkeley, California: Frog, Ltd., 1999

Rose, Jeanne.  The Aromatherapy Book: Applications & Inhalations.  San Francisco, California:

Rose, Jeanne. Herbal Guide to Food. 1989. Available from /books.html

Rose, Jeanne. Kitchen Cosmetics. 1978. Available from /books.html

Rose, Jeanne. . 2000. Available from /books.html

Herbal Studies Course/ Jeanne Rose & Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1992.

Worwood, Susan & Valerie Ann.  essential aromatherapy, a pocket guide …  Novato, California:  New World Library, 2003.

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MINT LIMERICK
Crick Crack, crick crack Crunch
I like some Spearmint in my lunch
A little green
So very clean
I’ll also have it at my brunch. …JeanneRose2013

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SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

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Moderation in All Things.
Be moderate in your use of essential oils as they are just not sustainable for the environment. Be selective and more moderate in your usage. Use the herb first as a tea or the infusion. —JeanneRose 2014

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