Mint stems and leaves - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 46092 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 126.01 LABIATAE Mentha arvensis | Entry Book Number | 9.1887 | |
| Artefact Name | Mint stems and leaves | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Japan | TDWG Region | Japan | ||
| Parts Held | Mint stems and leaves | Geography Description | Japan | ||
| Uses | Mint stems and leavesUse: FOOD User: Man | TDWG use | FOOD | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Pharm Soc GB | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | ||||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: Hakka - Mentha austriaca, jacq? Fr et Sav. vol.i. p366. Syn. Mentha arvensis L var Javanica Bl., Pharmacographia p 434 note 1; Mentha arvensis var vulgaris Benth. Megusa, Somokou Zousset, vol xi fig 27. Phonzou Zoufou vol xii fol 10., This drug consists of the dried herb. The leaves are lanceolate and nearly glabrous with a tapering base and with few short but sharp serrations. The taste is powerfully pungent and strongly resembles that of Mentha piperata. The oil, however, of th, e 2 plants is not identical, as shown by Fluckiger, since it does not give a fluorescence when treated with nitric acid. The leaves are probably used as tea by the Japanese. Mr T Christy informs me that he experienced great relief when in China, in an, attack of sunstroke, by the application of the oil, which a Chinese doctor rubbed over his head. It produced a most profuse perspiration and tranquil sleep. The Japanese peppermint plant has been attributed to Mentha javanica Bl. by Fluckiger and Ha, nbury but all the specimens of that plant, which, I have seen have the taste of Mentha viridis L, not of M piperita L. In the So Mokou Zoussetz, the figure of the Japanese peppermint plant exactly corresponds to the drug, but is by mistake referred to a, s M arvensis var vulgaris Benth. which is quite a different plant, with leaves widest below, like those of M arvensis and a similar taste. All the specimens of M austriaca Jacq. including a type specimen to which I have had access, have not the taste of, peppermint. The plant yielding the Japanese peppermint oil must therefore be regarded as a yet unnamed form. In shape of the leaf and character of the calyx it seems to approach most nearly to M canadensis, but the leaves of that sp, according to a liv, ing sp of the hairy variety, kindly supplied by Professor Asa Gray, have a taste more approaching to pennyroyal. | ||||