Herb Finder
Add Herb Finder to Your Website!
Update Your Account Information
Pennyroyal | | Name : | Pennyroyal | | Botanical : | Mentha Pulegium | | Synonyms : | Pulegium. Run-by-the-Ground. Lurk-in-the-Ditch. Pudding Grass. Piliolerial. | | Family : | Labiatae | | Parts Used : | The herb and oil | | Habitat : | Found in dry fields and open woods along the Atlantic coast and westto Minnesota and Nebraska. | | Description : | Pennyroyal is the smallest of the Mints and very different in habit from any of the others. Two forms of the plant are met with in Great Britain: the commonest, the variety decumbens, has weak, prostrate stems, bluntly quadrangular, 3 inches to a foot long, which readily take root at the lower joints or nodes. The leaves are opposite, shortly stalked, more or less hairy on both sides, roundish oval, greyish green, about 1 to 1 1/2 inch long and 1/2 inch broad. The flowers are in whorled clusters of ten or a dozen, rising in tiers one above the other at the nodes, where the leaves spring in pairs, beginning about the middle of the stem, their colour reddish purple to lilac blue, and in bloom during July and August. The seed is light brown, oval and very small. The other variety, erecta, has much stouter stems, not rooting at the nodes and not decumbent, but erect or sub-erect, 8 to 12 inches high. It is rarer, but the best for cultivation, as it can be reaped and tied up in bundles easily, whereas the stems of decumbens form a dense green turf, the flowering stems, sparingly produced, Iying on the leafy cushions of the plant. There are other varieties on the Continent. The plant has been introduced into North and South America. It is mentioned in the Herbals of the New World as one of the plants the Pilgrim Fathers introduced.It is found wild and naturalized throughout the civilized world in strong, moist soil on the borders of ponds and streams, and near pools on heaths and commons. Gerard speaks of it as found abundantly: 'on a common at Mile End, near London, about the holes and ponds thereof, in sundrie places, from whence poore women bring plenty to sell in London markets.' Turner says: 'It crepeth much upon the ground and hath many little round leves not unlyke the leves of mesierum gentil, but that they are a little longer and sharper and also little indented rounde about, and grener than the leves of mariurum ar. The leves grow in little branches even from the roote of certayn ioyntes by equall spaces one devyded from an other. Whereas the leves grow in little tuftes upon the over partes of the braunches.... Pennyroyal groweth much, without any setting, besyd hundsley (Hounslow) upon the heth beside a watery place.'Like most of its near relatives, Pennyroyal is highly aromatic, perhaps even more so than any other Mint, containing an essential oil resembling in properties that of other mints, though less powerful. The flavour is more pungent and acrid and less agreeable than that of Spearmint or Peppermint.
Pennyroyal was in high repute among the Ancients. Both Pliny and Dioscorides described its numerous virtues. In Northern Europe it was also much esteemed, as may be inferred from the frequent references to it in the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh works on medicine.
'The boke of Secretes of Albertus Magnus of the vertues of Herbes, Stones and certaine Beastes' states that, by putting drowning flies and bees in warm ashes of Pennyroyal 'they shall recover their Iyfe after a little tyme as by ye space of one houre' and be revived.
Pennyroyal is often found in cottage gardens, as an infusion of the leaves, known as Pennyroyal Tea, is an old-fashioned remedy for colds and menstrual derangements. | | Constituents : | The fresh herb yields about 1 per cent of a volatile oil, oil of Pulegium, a yellow or greenish-yellow liquid, obtained by distillation, and having a strong aromatic odour and taste. The chief constituent is ketone pulegone.
A yield of 12 lb. of oil to the acre of crop is considered good. | | Uses : | Pliny gives a long list of disorders for which Pennyroyal was a supposed remedy, and especially recommends it for hanging in sleeping rooms, it being considered by physicians as more conducive to health even than roses.
It was likewise thought to communicate its purifying qualities to water, and Gerard tells us: 'If you have Pennyroyale in great quantity dry and cast it into corrupt water, it helpeth it much, neither will it hurt them that drink thereof.' As a purifier of the blood, it was highly spoken of: 'Penny-royale taken with honey cleanseth the lungs and cleareth the breast from all gross and thick humours.'
It was deemed by our ancestors valuable in headaches and giddiness. We are told: 'A garland of Penny-royale made and worn about the head is of great force against the swimming in the head and the pains and giddiness thereof.'
Pennyroyal Water was distilled from the leaves and given as an antidote to spasmodic, nervous and hysterical affections. It was also used against cold and 'affections of the joints.'Culpepper says of Pennyroyal: 'Drank with wine, it is good for venomous bites, and applied to the nostrils with vinegar revives those who faint and swoon. Dried and burnt, it strengthens the gums, helps the gout, if applied of itself to the place until it is red, and applied in a plaster, it takes away spots or marks on the face; applied with salt, it profits those that are splenetic, or liver grown.... The green herb bruised and putinto vinegar, cleanses foul ulcers and takes away the marks of bruises and blows about the eyes, and burns in the face, and the leprosy, if drank and applied outwardly.... One spoonful of the juice sweetened with sugar-candy is a cure for hooping-cough.'Its action is carminative, diaphoretic, stimulant and emmenagogic, and is principally employed for the last-named property in disorders caused by sudden chill or cold.
It is also beneficial in cases of spasms, hysteria, flatulence and sickness, being very warming and grateful to the stomach.
The infusion of 1 OZ. of herb to a pint of boiling water is taken warm in teacupful doses, frequently repeated, and the oil is also given on sugar, as well as being made up into pills and other preparations.
In France and Germany oil of Pennyroyal is also used commercially. | | Dosage : | Infusion: use 1 tsp. herb with 1 cup hot water. Take 1 to2 cups a day.
Tincture: take 20-30 drops at a time, as needed. For children,give small, frequent doses.
Extract: 20-60 drops in liquid daily for relief of symptoms. | | Safety : | All essential oils are life-threatening if taken internally. To takepennyroyal oil internally to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is verydangerous and in a few cases has resulted in death. There is possiblefetal damage from the use of pennyroyal in any form during pregnancy.
Ingesting essential oil can be lethal; contact with essential oil(a popular insect repellent) can cause dermatitis.
May cause severe kidney/liver damage used in excess of 2 ounces.
Do not be used during pregnancy, it is a uterine stimulant.
Use only with medical supervision. | | Myths : | Flavorful and fragrant tea with a somewhat minty taste. Another ofthe teas used as an oriental tea substitute during the American Revolution.
Back in olden times when abortion was illegal, pennyroyal was usedto induce abortion. In some cases it resulted in hemorrhage and seriouscomplications for the mother. Therefore, it should never be used forthat purpose. Helps in labor and delivery, though. Do not use withoutmedical supervision.
The oil of this herb is a good insect repellent.
Strip the leaves from the stalk, put the leaves in a muslin bag,sew up the bag and put in pets bed. Fleas are chased away. Or sprinklewith pennyroyal oil or essence. | | Sold : | The oil externally applied wards off mosquitoes. For this purposeit is used alone or combined with citronella. |
|
|
