On the good ship Lollipop,
It’s a sweet trip to the candy shop
Where bon-bon’s play,
On the sunny beach Of Peppermint Bay
Song by David Butler and Edwin Burke
Sung by Shirley Temple in the 1934 film, “Bright Eyes”
The holiday season is also peppermint season. It’s a time to enjoy treats like candy canes, mint candies and special flavors of ice cream, coffee creamer and cookies.
Altoids, Ice Breakers, Tic Tacs, Breath Savers and Mentos all contain peppermint. They help us make a good first impression by sweetening the breath.
Besides being cool in the mouth and tasty on the tongue, peppermint has some important medicinal uses and is being investigated for many others.
Peppermint is an oily liquid contained in the leaves of at least 23 different plants. The one sold at the garden store is Mentha piperita.
Rub the leaves between your hands and the oil is released. It evaporates quickly, which is why you smell it right away. Chemically, there are more than a dozen different substances in that oil, the most important being menthol and menthone.
These substances, derived from peppermint, are useful to aid digestion, relieve cold symptoms and treat sore muscles.
Smelling peppermint relieves the bloated feeling caused by air or gas in the stomach.
There is a band of muscle and connective tissue at the point where the esophagus meets the stomach, called the gastro-esophageal sphincter. It usually stays tightly closed to prevent the food and acid in the stomach from coming back up. This is desirable unless you have eaten something spoiled, in which case, the sphincter relaxes and you throw up.
If the stomach is distended with air, sucking on a peppermint candy causes the sphincter to open and the air escapes.
Lozenges and ointments containing peppermint help open up clogged sinuses due to respiratory infections. The peppermint in creams that relieve itching evaporates, cooling the skin.
Another popular use of peppermint is in products that relieve the pain in sore muscles and joints.
The relief from soaking in hot water inspired a French pharmacist named Jules Bengué to compound an ointment containing peppermint and methyl salicylate that warms the skin. When the product was brought to America in 1898, the name was modified to make it easier to read and pronounce: Bengay. The same ingredients are in Icy Hot, Ice Cold and Deep Heat.
Menthol extracted from peppermint has been included in lozenges to relieve the pain of infections in the throat, and in inhaled products to open up clogged sinuses.
Peppermint may prove to have more important medicinal uses. It has been shown to be active against 15 or more pathogenic bacteria, including E. coli, Salmonella, and streptococcus in laboratory experiments. This has not yet resulted in a medication for human use, but scientists continue to work on it. It may turn out to be most useful for topical infections like impetigo.
Superficial skin infections with fungi, such as athlete’s foot, or tinea pedis, may respond to topical applications of ointments containing peppermint.
More importantly, research is underway to investigate peppermint’s activity against viruses. Studies have looked at extracts of peppermint to treat flu virus, West Nile virus, herpes simplex virus, and human immunodeficiency virus which is more commonly called HIV. This research continues.
Peppermint oil has been researched in the treatment of inflammation in general, and more specifically, to help the body combat cancer. Several research studies have shown that peppermint extract slows the growth of liver tumor cells in laboratory experiments. Although promising, this research is a long way from an application to treat cancer in humans.
Peppermint is a holiday tradition. One day, it may prove to be much more than a sweet trip to the candy shop.
Happy Holidays from the Estes Valley Voice.
Terry Rustin, M.D. is a psychiatrist and internist who specializes in addiction behavioral medicine.