Mentha piperita
Plant · Lamiaceae
The Mentha Piperita patient has a marked sensitivity to cold air and respiratory tract irritation. They suffer from flatulent digestive disorders and skin conditions with itching. The cough is characteristically triggered by external irritants and accompanied by suprasternal fossa irritation.
Key symptoms
- Stimulates cold-perceiving nerves; air seems cold after taking remedy
- Bloated abdomen disturbing sleep
- Infantile colic with bilious flatulence
- Dry cough worse from air into larynx, tobacco smoke, fog, and talking
- Irritation in suprasternal fossa with cough
- Trachea painful to touch
- Voice husky with dry, sore throat as if pin crosswise in it
- Every scratch becomes a sore
- Vaginal pruritus and herpes zoster
Worse (aggravation)
- Air into larynx
- Tobacco smoke
- Fog
- Talking
Peppermint
Stimulates the cold-perceiving nerves, so just after taking it, a current of air at the ordinary temperature seems cold. Marked action on respiratory organs and skin. Useful in gastrodynia, flatulent cold.
Abdomen
Bloated, disturbing sleep. Infantile colic. Bilious colic with great accumulation of gas.
Respiration
Voice husky. Tip of nose to touch. Throat dry and sore, as if pin crosswise in it. Dry cough, worse from air into larynx, tobacco smoke, fog, talking; with irritation in suprasternal fossa (Rumex). Trachea painful to touch.
Skin
Every scratch becomes a sore. Itching of arm and hand when writing. Vaginal pruritus. Herpes zoster (Ars; Ran bulb).
Relationship
Compare: Rumex; Laches; Mentha pulegium--European pennyroyal--(pain in bones of forehead and extremities). Mentha viridis-Spearmint--(scanty urine with frequent desire).
Dose
Tincture, 1 to 20 drops, to thirtieth potency. Locally, in pruritus vaginæ.
Mentha piperita. Peppermint. N. O. Labiatæ. Tincture of whole plant. Dilutions of essence.
Clinical
Cough, dry. Headache. Hoarseness. Influenza. Pruritus. Throat, sore. Voice, weakness of.
Characteristics
A remarkable proving of Menth. pip. was made by Demeures, who took a single drop of the tincture, the effects of which lasted into the third month. A case of fatal poisoning with the essence is on record. The patient, a boy of six, took between 1 and 2 ounces and died in two hours. When seen he was insensible, eyes fixed, pupils unmovable, stertorous breathing, cold skin, lips livid. The most remarkable symptom of the proving was the cough, and this has been fully confirmed. It was a dry cough, excited by air entering larynx, by reading aloud, by exposure to cold, by shocks of any kind. Demeures says he cured with Menth. pip. every case of influenza that came under his care in the winter of 1847-8. "It is to dry cough, however caused, what Arn. is to injuries and Aco. to inflammatory complaints. It …
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