Cheryl Sue Wing

Pow­er­ful pep­per­mint

The strong, dis­tinct smell and taste of pep­per­mint is some­thing that has in­fused many child­hoods. Whether it was the crisp flavour your mouth craved while wrestling with the plas­tic wrap­per that en­cased your first Christ­mas can­dy cane, or the round red-and-white disc you craved to help cure your stom­ach-ache that may or may not have been re­al, pep­per­mint is re­fresh­ing, fa­mil­iar and wel­come all at the same time.

The pep­per­mint plant grows in a num­ber of coun­tries in­clud­ing Eu­rope and Asia and is nat­u­ralised to North Amer­i­ca. The plant it­self grows to about two feet tall and blooms be­tween Ju­ly and Au­gust, yield­ing fra­grant leaves and flow­ers that are the source of the volatile oil fea­tur­ing pep­per­mint's ac­tive com­po­nent, men­thol.

Lend­ing its dis­tinc­tive flavour and aro­ma to many dish­es, the plant is used in a va­ri­ety of ways in the kitchen. One of the best known is in pep­per­mint tea, which is com­posed of the plant's dried leaves. Oth­er cui­sine of­fer­ings in­clude desserts and re­fresh­ing bev­er­ages.

As re­fresh­ing as pep­per­mint's flavour is, it al­so serves many med­i­c­i­nal pur­pos­es, as well. Thanks to its po­tent in­gre­di­ent men­thol, pep­per­mint works to ease mus­cle pain and can al­so clear si­nus­es, calm the stom­ach and help re­lieve men­stru­al cramps. Top­i­cal ap­pli­ca­tions, such as creams, lo­tions and mas­sage oils have a sooth­ing, cool­ing ef­fect on the skin, but top­i­cal pep­per­mint al­so has been known to re­sult in con­tact der­mati­tis, so a con­ser­v­a­tive, di­lut­ed ap­proach is al­ways best.

Health­ful hon­ey

From Cleopa­tra's leg­endary milk and hon­ey baths tak­en to main­tain youth­ful­ness to Queen Anne of Eng­land's hon­ey and oil mix­ture for lus­trous, shiny hair, hon­ey has been mak­ing women beau­ti­ful for cen­turies. And along with be­ing a beau­ty sta­ple, the sticky sub­stance al­so is a nat­ur­al sweet­en­er pri­mar­i­ly com­posed of fruc­tose, glu­cose and wa­ter. More than 300 unique kinds of hon­ey are avail­able, with the colour and flavour de­pend­ing on the bee's nec­tar source and in­clud­ing such di­verse types as clover, eu­ca­lyp­tus and or­ange blos­som.

Avail­able in many forms, in­clud­ing comb, cut comb, liq­uid, nat­u­ral­ly crys­tallised, and whipped or creamed, this sweet con­coc­tion can be used to cre­ate many de­lec­table treats-for the skin and the stom­ach. Hon­ey is of­ten used for its all-nat­ur­al ap­peal, and it has many skin care ben­e­fits to of­fer. The sub­stance is a humec­tant, mean­ing it at­tracts and re­tains mois­ture, mak­ing it an ob­vi­ous choice for cleansers and creams. Hon­ey is al­so an an­ti-ir­ri­tant, which is use­ful for sen­si­tive and ba­by skin care, and re­search is cur­rent­ly un­der­way to de­vel­op a process us­ing hon­ey to cre­ate al­pha hy­drox­yl acids, which help ex­fo­li­ate skin for cell re­new­al.