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Water mint (Mentha aquatica) belongs to the Lamiaceae family. This variety grows in nature near water bodies, as the name implies, and it is also grown in summer cottages and gardens. Cultivars are highly decorative, but serve not only to decorate the site. Water mint is successfully used in cooking, cosmetology, and medicine.
Description of water mint
In nature, aquatic or water mint is a common marsh plant. It easily takes root in summer cottages near artificial ponds. The natural appearance of water mint is low – from 30 to 50 cm. The leaves are oval in shape with pubescence, slightly blush in the sun. Small, light purple flowers, collected in globular inflorescences, appear from mid-July, and attract bees.
Popular varieties include Moroccan Mintse – without characteristic hairs on erect stems, blooms in June. The leaves are more rounded than the wild species.
Cultivated varieties bred by breeders are distinguished by more powerful growth, the height of the shoots reaches 90 cm.
The use of water mint in cooking
Mint goes well with desserts, but is also appropriate with meat and vegetables. One of the most popular drinks with her is Mojito. To prepare a cocktail you will need:
- lime;
- 100 g fresh mint;
- 2 tsp Sahara;
- mineral sparkling water
- ice.
The leaves are crushed or crushed to release the juice. The lime is cut and squeezed into a glass, sugar, ice and mineral water are added.
What is the scent of water mint
When rubbed, water mint leaves emit a characteristic odor. It has a refreshing, icy note of menthol, and is the richest of the bunch.
Where is water mint added
Mint is so popular that it’s hard to imagine everyday life without it. It is associated with a huge number of tastes and smells in cooking and perfumery. Water mint also has beneficial properties and contraindications, which few people know about.
Useful properties of water mint
Mint has a strong bactericidal effect. When chewing its leaves, microbes in the oral cavity are destroyed. It contains ascorbic acid, flavonoids and tannins. Terpenes, which are part of the essential oil of mint, have an anticarcinogenic effect.
Useful properties of mint:
- antimicrobial;
- anti-inflammatory;
- sedative;
- antispasmodic;
- volatile.
In large quantities, mint causes severe sweating, reduces concentration, and does not allow you to fall asleep, so you need to use it in moderation. Studies by Ukrainian scientists have shown that the phytoncides that this plant secretes have antispasmodic properties. Mint aroma is useful for people with diseases of the cardiovascular system, hypertension.
The use of water mint in traditional and folk medicine
In scientific medicine, only horse mint and peppermint are used. They have the highest concentration of essential oil and menthol.
The use of water mint lies more in folk medicine. It is the following:
- Peppermint tea relieves nausea, I drink it in small sips. Can be used by pregnant women with the permission of a doctor. Mints and lozenges help with motion sickness.
- Mint helps to improve digestion, eliminate bloating, muscle spasms.
- The herb is effective for colds due to its anti-inflammatory properties. An aqueous solution of mint ether can be used to treat a room during an epidemic.
- Peppermint drink helps to cope with migraines. For headaches, you can rub your temples with a cooling essential oil.
- Thanks to the anti-inflammatory properties of mint, it is good to use it to treat inflammation in the skin and reduce itching, with problems with the oral cavity.
- Mint refreshes and strengthens hair, gives it shine, reduces the appearance of dandruff. You can rinse the curls with a decoction of herbs or add mint essential oil to the shampoo.
- Mint also refreshes the skin of the face, reduces wrinkles, irritation, dryness and inflammation. Mint decoction can be frozen, and wipe your face with mint ice.
To prepare a mint decoction 1-2 tbsp. l. dried or fresh herbs pour 0,5 liters of boiling water. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes. Cool, strain and use as directed.
Menthol leads to the expansion of the sphincter between the esophagus and stomach. As a result, the contents are thrown into the esophagus, and heartburn begins. Therefore, people prone to reflux-esophagitis, mint is contraindicated. It will worsen the condition and create great discomfort.
Rules of landing
Water mint, the photo and description of which is familiar to many gardeners, reproduces well by seeds and vegetatively – parts of rhizomes, cuttings. It prefers to grow in well-lit areas, but tolerates partial shade. It is advisable to plant the plant in loose soil so that the rhizome is more powerful and the leaf mass grows better. To the qualitative composition of the soil, mint is unpretentious, but it grows better on fertile loams and chernozem.
Mint is planted in the spring, when the snow melts and the soil warms up. An adult bush is used to propagate an existing plantation. They dig it up, divide it into parts, and plant delenki in the right place. You can make a furrow and put the mint rhizome in one row. When setting up a mint plantation, the distance between the furrows is 40-60 cm. The planting depth is 8-10 cm. Already in the first year, you can get raw materials for mint teas and decoctions. Mint is also grown through seedlings, sowing seeds in pots. Young seedlings are transplanted into open ground in May.
Mint is a very aggressive plant, it quickly spreads over the area with the help of root offspring, so it is better to grow it in a basket and cut off the elongated shoots. You can install limiters made of slate, plastic and other improvised material around mint beds, restraining the growth of bushes.
Features of cultivation and care
Water mint is a marsh plant that can grow in acidic, waterlogged soil. If she does not have the opportunity to receive moisture directly from the reservoir, abundant watering is required. On hot summer days, when there is no rain, mint can be watered daily – in the evenings or early in the morning.
Weeds that have grown between the shoots of water mint are pulled out with their hands, the aisles are weeded. If there is no time for weeding, you can use mulch. The space around the mint bushes is covered with it, thanks to which weeds do not grow, moisture is better retained in the soil and air permeability increases. Without mulch, aquatic mint, if not growing in water, needs to be loosened so that the roots get enough air.
Pests and diseases
Mint is unpretentious, it does not require special care. Pests are practically not affected, rarely get sick. Sometimes suffers from rust and powdery mildew. At the first sign of the disease, leaves clean from infection are immediately harvested, and the remaining plants are cut to the ground and burned.
When and how to harvest water mint
Like many herbs of temperate latitudes, mint stops growing with the onset of cold weather, so in the summer it is harvested for future use until the next season. The plant is harvested in the middle of summer, at the very beginning of flowering, when the concentration of essential oils in the leaves is the highest. Later, the amount of nutrients in mint decreases. The stems are cut along with the inflorescence to one third of the height, then by autumn new shoots will grow and it will be possible to harvest another crop of spicy herbs.
How to dry water mint
There are two options for harvesting dried herbs. The first involves drying only the leaves, the second – grinding along with stems and flowers, and then drying in the shade.
When using an electric dryer, set the temperature to + 35 … + 40 ° C. If the heat is stronger, the essential oils will evaporate, and you will get not a fragrant seasoning, but a bunch of hay. When drying naturally in the air, the mint is laid out in a thin layer in the shade, after washing it well. For culinary purposes, dried leaves are used. They are taken with stems and flowers to prepare decoctions, which are added to baths, used to rinse hair for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.
Store dried mint in a dark, cool place in tightly tied fabric bags, glass or plastic containers with lids.
Conclusion
Water mint is tasty, fragrant and healthy. This means that recovery can be combined with pleasure. The herb is grown in the garden or in a pot on a windowsill. Mint has beneficial properties, due to which it is used in medicine, cooking and cosmetology.
