I love the Mint Fanily. With so many mint herbs one can dive into finding out the subtle flavors of each. For example, Lemon Balm is a Mint Family herb and is easily distinguishable. All the mint herbs can be used interchangeably. You harvest the Mint Family herb in summer or spring. They grow wild in Connecticut and can take over a garden, but I love the smell.
One of the volatile herbs ins pearmint is menthol which is a cooling agent and anesthetic. If you ever used mint toothpaste you understand the local ansesthetic aspect of this herb.
Spearmint is used effcetively in digestive probloems It can be used to settle the stomach and relaxes the smooth muscle of the digestive tract. It does minimize cramping, alleviate bloating and the gassy stomach when one has overeaten. If the stimnach is uoset due to stress iut does settke the stimnach,
Spearmint has an anti viral component, and does encourage sweating —lowering the high fever and temperature. It can be inhaled in a nebulizer to hear clear the nasal and sinus passages.. I love when an herbalist adds spearmint to a lip balm for protection against HSV 1 ( herpes virus). I even use it on bee stings which is very effective
So don;t regard the mint family as an annoyed invasive herb in your garden It has many uses
Until tomorrow…