Peppermint – the queen of herbs

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 02. 23. 12:07

Mint species have been used by mankind for more than two thousand years. Peppermint, on the other hand, has only been around for 250 years. However, nowadays this species has the greatest economic and medicinal importance. Its use is extremely broad. It is used in large quantities by modern medicine, the food industry, and the cosmetics industry. With the help of MATE’s expert, let’s learn more about this special medicinal plant, which was chosen as the medicinal plant of the year in 2024 by the Medicinal Plant Department of the Hungarian Pharmaceutical Society.

Szilvia Tavaszi-Sárosi, associate professor of the Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the Institute of Horticulture of the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and her colleagues have been working for several years to maintain mint stands of various origins, in more than forty open field plots.

The natural occurrence of peppermint is unknown. According to what we know today, it originates from England, but according to some authors it originated in the Far East. The populations currently grown in Hungary are of English origin. Peppermint is a so-called species hybrid created by crossing two other mint species, its parent lines are water mint and spearmint. Two different forms of peppermint have spread in cultivation, one is black or red mint, and the other is white or green mint. Peppermint is typically a herbaceous, perennial plant species that overwinters with underground modified shoots.