WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Peppermint cover

Peppermint

Chapter 3: DESCRIPTION.
By Alice Henkel
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

EconomicsHistory - AmericanScience - Earth/Agricultural/Farming

About This Book

The bulletin provides a practical overview of peppermint: botanical description and distinctions among common varieties, methods of propagation, and the regions where it is grown worldwide and in the United States. It details cultivation practices, hazards to the crop, harvesting and on‑farm distillation procedures including still design, and the chemistry and uses of peppermint oil and menthol. Historical and commercial aspects are discussed, including export markets, price trends, and an episode of market control that affected production. Illustrations supplement the text with depictions of runners, leaves, flowering tops, and a typical still.

B. P. I—189.

PEPPERMINT.[1]

DESCRIPTION.

One of the most important essential oils produced in the United States is distilled from the peppermint plant and its varieties. The three kinds of mint grown in this country for the distillation of peppermint oil are the so-called American mint (Mentha piperita L.), the black mint (Mentha piperita vulgaris Sole), and the white mint (Mentha piperita officinalis Sole), the two last named being varieties of the American mint.

The American mint, although introduced from England many years ago, is so called from the fact that it has long been cultivated in this country, and the name “State mint” has been applied to it in the State of New York for the same reason.

The peppermint, or American mint, is now naturalized in many parts of the eastern United States, occurring in wet soil from the New England States to Minnesota, south to Florida and Tennessee. It is an aromatic perennial belonging to the mint family (Menthaceæ), and propagates by means of its long, running roots (fig. 1). The smooth, square stems are erect and branching, from 1 to 3 feet in height, bearing dark-green, lance-shaped leaves, which are from 1 to 2 inches long, and from one-half to 1 inch wide. The leaves are pointed at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, sharply toothed, smooth on both sides, or with hairy veins on the lower surface. The flowers are borne in whorls in dense, terminal spikes; they are purplish, with a tubular, five-toothed calyx, and a four-lobed corolla. (Fig. 2.)

Fig. 1.—Peppermint “runners,” showing method of propagation.

Fig. 2.—Leaves and flowering top of peppermint.

The two varieties mentioned are closely related botanically, although in general appearance they are quite different. The variety known as black mint (Mentha piperita vulgaris) has purple stems and slightly toothed, dark-green leaves, while the white mint (Mentha piperita officinalis) has green stems, with brighter green leaves, which are more lance-shaped and more deeply toothed. Black mint is much more hardy and productive than either the American mint or the white mint, and is grown on nearly all peppermint farms in this country. The white mint, which produces a fine grade of oil, is rarely cultivated on a commercial scale in this country on account of its inability to withstand the climate and its smaller yield of essential oil.

The oils spoken of as Japanese and Chinese “peppermint” oils are not obtained from the true peppermint plant, but are distilled from entirely different species, namely, Mentha arvensis piperascens Malinvaud and Mentha arvensis glabrata Holmes, respectively.