Witnessed by: Western · Unani
Horsemint (Mentha longifolia), of the Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family. Tall, softly grey-hairy perennial spreading by runners to a metre, with stalkless lance-shaped leaves and slender terminal flower-spikes; native range: Europe, north and east Africa, and temperate Asia; along ditches, streamsides and damp waste ground. Globally recognized as wild mint, horse mint, brook mint, silver mint in English, na'na barri, habaq in Arabic, and jangli podina, putina in Urdu. The part used is leaves and flowering tops (aerial parts). Whole plant felted and grey-green; the bruised leaf gives a strong, slightly coarse, camphoraceous mint smell, more acrid and warming and less sweet than garden mint.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
HORSEMINT
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- Horsemint
- Scientific name
- Mentha longifolia (L.) L.
- Family
- Lamiaceae (Labiatae)
Form
- Part used
- leaves and flowering tops (aerial parts)
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- pungent · aromatic, with an acrid warming bite
- Unani
- pungent · aromatic
Temperature
Western: hot (hot & dry, 2nd–3rd degree)
Unani: hot (har-yabis, hot & dry in the 2nd degree)
convergence: both {witness_count} witnesses read a hot, drying mint — carminative heat rather than a cooling one
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- stomach · digestion · nerves
- Unani
- stomach · liver · intestines
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- carminative, stomachic, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, and a mild emmenagogue and anthelmintic
- Unani
- kaasir-e-riyah (carminative), hazim (digestive), muqawwi-e-meda (stomach tonic), mufatteh-e-sudad (deobstruent), mudirr-e-haiz (emmenagogue), daf'-e-taffun (antiseptic)
Cautions
- Contraindications
- large or prolonged doses in pregnancy; the concentrated essential oil is not for internal use
- Toxicity
- the leaf and its tea are well tolerated; strong oil doses may irritate the stomach, and some chemotypes carry pulegone
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