Botanical
Volume
Origin
Culture
Peppermint, Mentha piperita, belongs to the Lamiaceae family and is a perennial herbaceous plant. It has rhizomes and upright or creeping stems that can reach a height of 1.20 m.
The stems, reddish and square-shaped, can measure up to 80 cm and contain esters. The green, opposite, and petiolated leaves are between 4 and 10 cm long, turning reddish in the sun and copper-red in the shade. They are covered with secretory hairs containing volatile aromatic substances, extracted through steam distillation.
Peppermint prefers clayey, limestone, and humid soils. Its stoloniferous roots allow it to spread easily. This hybrid originates from the crossbreeding of Mentha aquatica and Mentha spicata and is cultivated in Europe, North America, and Russia.
The essential oil of peppermint, obtained by distillation of the flowering tops, is a colorless liquid, pale yellow, or sometimes pale yellow-green. Its invigorating fragrance is powerful and pervasive.
The composition of the oil varies depending on the ripening stage during harvesting, with notable differences in the concentrations of menthol and menthone.
