512 Handbook of herbs and spices
31.5 Food uses........................................................................................
Spearmint is widely valued world wide as a culinary herb. The leaves have a strong
spearmint flavour and they are used in flavouring salads or cooked foods (Hedrick,
1972; Grieve, 1984; Mabey, 1974; Facciola, 1990). In European counties, the leaves
find frequent use in preparing sauces for desserts, fruit, soup, split pea soup, lamb stew
and roast, fish, poultry, sweet dishes, vegetables, mint jelly, symps, fruit, compotes,
devils food cake, ice cream, herbal teas and mint tea. The carvone-rich essential oil
hydro-distilled from the above-ground part of M. spicata plants, is used for flavouring
sweets, chewing gums. toothpastes, etc. (Facciola, 1990). According to Duke and
Ayensu (1985), the nutritive composition of fresh leaves of spearmint is as given
below:
Leaves (fresh weight) in grammes per 100 g of leaves
- Water 83.0
- Protein 4.8
- Fat 0.6
- Carbohydrate 8.0
- Fibre 2.0
- Ash 1.6
In milligrammes per 100 g weight
- Calcium 200.0
- Phosphorus 80.0
- Iron 15.0
- Niacin 0.4
31.6 Medicinal uses................................................................................
Spearmint is commonly used as a domestic herbal remedy. A tea made from the
leaves has traditionally been used in the treatment of fevers, headaches, digestive
disorders and various minor ailments (Foster and Duke, 1990). The herb is antiemetic,
antispasmodic, carminative, diuretic, restorative, stimulant and stomachic (Lust, 1983;
Grieve, 1984; Duke and Ayensu, 1985). The leaves should be harvested at the time of
flower initiation of the plant and can be dried for later use (Grieve 1984). The
essential oil of the plant is antiseptic, though it is toxic in large doses (Foster and
Duke, 1990). The essential oil and the aerial stems are often used in folk remedies for
cancer and a poultice prepared from the leaves (macerated leaves) is said to remedy
tumours (Duke and Ayensu, 1985).
31.7 Functional benefits.........................................................................
31.7.1 Antimicrobial activity
The essential oils obtained from M. spicata and M. pulegium exhibit antimicrobial
properties against eight strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
(Sivropoulou et al., 1995). These authors ascertained that the main p-menthane
components of the essential oils exhibit a variable degree of antimicrobial activity
not only between different bacterial strains but also between different strains of the