[MPWG] An inquiry on Mentha spicata

[rrr at montana.com]

Hello Marjorie,

I seem to remember a paper on organic Mentha. At least there are some on
organic herbs. Check Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Also, check PubMed. I assume you know how to do this, but for the sake of
others who may not, the following may be helpful:

To read and download an abstract go to PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

In the blank provided at the top of the page, enter the first Author's
last name and initials (Ex: Kosina, P) and click on GO.  A list of papers
by this author will appear in date order.  Click on the paper's author and
this will take you to an abstract.

If the paper is not in this database, search on Google for the journal and
find the table of contents for the issue you want.

To obtain the whole paper, you either have to purchase it, or find a
friend who has access, or find a university library that allows local
residents to have access (the best choice, IMO).

Also, there is now a new imperative by NIH to make research funded by NIH
available to the public for free.
PubMed Central (PMC) is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free
digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.  
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/

I tried the latter website, searching under Mentha and got 125 hits. It's
going to take some digging, but I think there is some research there.
Though, some of your questions have probably not been researched.
Significant chemical changes between different soils or areas, for
example, is an ongoing question.

You might want to check phylogeny and evolution journals as well. Don't
forget to check under Lamiaceae and Labiatae also.

Good book on terpenes: "Natural Terpenoids as Messengers," Harrewijn,
Oosten, and Piron.

Cheers, Robyn Klein, AHG Herbalist, MSc Medical Botany
Dept Plant Sciences
Montana State University



> I wonder if members of MPWG would have the information on the following
> on spearmint, Mentha spicata:
>
> .  if differences exist in chemicals (organic anc inorganic) in leaves,
> stems and flowers of mentha spicata,
> .  if there are chemical changes with different stages of the plant: at
> early stage spring and at the flower stage,
> .  if there are significant chemical changes with sparmint plants grown
> in different parts of the world.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Marjorie Nieh