Wintergreen - Plant Information

Wintergreen
Genus: Gaultheria Procumbens (G. Procumbens)
Family: Ericaceae
Perennial
USDA Hardiness Zone 3 - 8 (cooler 8)

Wintergreen can be substituted with sweet birch (betula lenta) in food products because it is easier to harvest and the volatile oil is about the same.(1)
Most wintergreen essential oil is synthetic. (1)

Well drained woodlands and clearings, acidic soils under the evergreen trees (PH as low as 4.5), high organic matter, white lilly of the valley type of flower, red berries. The flavor comes from the berries. 6 inches in height (1)

You may know is as:


  • Aromatic wintergreen
  • Boxberry
  • Canada tea
  • Checkerberry
  • Deerberry
  • Ground berry
  • Mountain tea
  • Partridge berry
  • Spice berry
  • Teaberry
  • Wax cluster

Cooking

Parts of the plant are edible. The leaves have a sharp, acerbic, and astringent taste, while the berries are sweet. The berries are used in flavorings. (2)

Wintergreen is a very important plant when it comes to pharmacology. Methyl salicylate makes up to 99% of the constituents in the oil distilled from the leaves. This constituent is where we get all aspirin products. (2)

Unlike many essential oils that can be distilled straight from the plant, wintergreen leaves have to be steeped first. In the water, they undergo a fermentation process. It is only after this decomposition that the oil can develop, and then be distilled. (2)

Interestingly, chemists have found a way to create a similar oil, also called oil of wintergreen, from Betula lenta, or the sweet birch tree. This oil contains up to 98% methyl salicylate and is produced only after maceration. However, this oil is produced from the bark of the tree. (2)

Medical


  • Antitussive (relieves cough)
  • Astringent
  • Carminative (relieves flatulence and abdominal bloating)
  • Diuretic
  • Stimulant

It is an emmenagogue, which stimulates menstruation and is a reason to not use it during pregnancy. It is also a galactogogue and stimulates breast milk flow, but the risk to the child is not worth the risk of using it in this manner. (2)

One milliliter (20 drops) of oil of wintergreen is equivalent to about 1860 mg of aspirin, or almost six regular-strength adult aspirin tablets. (3)

Production of Wintergreen oil

Wintergreen berries, from Gaultheria procumbens, are used medicinally. Native Americans brewed a tea from the leaves to alleviate rheumatic symptoms, headache, fever, sore throat, and various aches and pains. These therapeutic effects likely arose because the primary metabolite of methyl salicylate is salicylic acid, a proven NSAID that is also the metabolite of acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin. During the American Revolution, wintergreen leaves were used as a substitute for tea, which was scarce. (3)

The Gaultheria species share the common characteristic of producing oil of wintergreen. Wintergreen oil is a pale yellow or pinkish fluid liquid that is strongly aromatic with a sweet, woody odor (components: methyl salicylate (about 98%), α-pinene, myrcene, delta-3-carene, limonene, 3,7-guaiadiene, and delta-cadinene) that gives such plants a distinctive "medicinal" smell whenever bruised. Salicylate sensitivity is a common adverse reaction to the methyl salicylate in oil of wintergreen; it can produce allergy-like symptoms or asthma. (3)

Wintergreen essential oil is usually obtained by steam distillation of the leaves of the plant following maceration in warm water. Methyl salicylate is not present in the plant until formed by enzymatic action from a glycoside within the leaves as they are macerated in warm water. Oil of wintergreen is also manufactured from some species of birch, but these deciduous trees are not called wintergreens. Spiraea plants also contain methyl salicylate in large amounts and are used similarly to wintergreen. Wintergreen has a strong "minty" odor and flavor; however, the Gaultheria-genus plants are not true mints, which belong to the genus Mentha. (3)

One milliliter (20 drops) of oil of wintergreen is equivalent to about 1860 mg of aspirin, or almost six regular-strength adult aspirin tablets. (3)

Wintergreen Mint

Mentha wintergreen
Perennial
USDA Hardiness zones 6 - 11

Mentha Spicata (spearmint ‘wintergreen’)
USDA Hardiness zones 6-7
Companion Plants: Tomato, Cabbage, Thyme

References



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Rebell or To Not - What is the line between Passion and Toxicity?

 Everyone faces times in their lives where there is the option of following the set of rules they have accepted into their life or not. Some call these trails of faith, others call it testing your morals, but no matter what they are defining moments. Moments that will break you and remake you all in one. Times when you will find out if your set of rules will stand the test of time. When faced with these trials everyone will respond differently. I tend to extremes, but then my natal charts says that too, but the natal chart is not an excuse, and neither is my knowledge of myself. Just because I tend to a behavior set, does not mean I have an excuse to behave in that manner. Knowing the tendency, means I need to plan for it and set up means for me to recognize when I am, not justify it because "it's my nature" otherwise I need to turn in my "sapient card". Sapient meaning "of a species or life-form, possessing intelligence or self-awareness." So ... what
Read more

Worship Wheel

I have had this building yearning to create a system of worship beyond what I have been doing. What I have been doing has been rather simple, burn sage morning and night, with an incense stick on the weekend. But my heart is calling for something more. Mostly the method of worship I know is Wiccan. Wiccan and I can work together, but there is much we don't agree on too. While there are some who would just go with Wiccan, because they know it and are familiar, it is just not my way. I have issues, deep rooted ones that have been fed and watered by Wiccans, with calling myself Wiccan. Because of these issues I will not sign my name to back a Wiccan of any stripe; that is part of who I am. Add to it I have recently adopted the Norse Pantheon. The Norse God's and I seem to play well together so far. This maybe my home. The 9 tenants are things I was brought up to revere and have proven worthy of continued following. But the problem is ... I have no clue what regular worship is
Read more

Because You're Beautiful ...

Being a witch is about celebrating the seasons and the changes that come with them.  It is also about celebrating the shorter cycles of the moon.  My mentor Cronos tends to call witchcraft the original stepped self-help program. What better self-help than that of self-care and self-maintenance practices? Those things that make you smile or that you need to do to maintain your physical self. We all, or well I have, a bad habit of looking for big rituals or shows as being signs that we are witches. But being a witch also means seeing the little rituals that make us, well us. The woman who always presents a "together" image, the man who manages that "rough" but always refined look. Each of these are appearance-based rituals and go through their own cycles in order to create and maintain them. Those appearances would not have been created if they were meaningless, if they did not serve some purpose.  The advantage of being an independent witch who no one creed holds my
Read more