Horsemint

Nausea and gastric irritation in a person who is nervously exhausted, where a warming aromatic stimulant settles the stomach and lifts the spirits

Flatulent colic with cold, sluggish digestion that responds to a warming carminative rather than a purely bitter tonic

Overview. Monarda punctata, horsemint, is a native North American aromatic herb of the mint family, historically distinguished from the ornamental bee balms by its pungent thymol rich essential oil. The aerial parts and distilled oil were used extensively by nineteenth century American eclectic physicians as a diffusible stimulant and carminative, and the plant grows wild in sandy fields and open woods across the eastern and southeastern United States. It has since fallen out of common practice but retains a place as a folk and eclectic remedy for digestive and febrile complaints.

Clinical Notes. Horsemint was valued by the eclectic physicians chiefly as a fast acting, gently stimulating carminative for a stomach that has gone flat, cold, or nauseated, especially where the person is also nervously depleted rather than acutely inflamed.

Action and Therapy. External. Locally applied the oil is rubefacient, and if too closely or long applied painfully vesicant. It has been successfully used in local neuralgias Internal. Infusion of monarda has long been a popular remedy for retarded menstruation from cold.

Therapy. It soothes gastric and intestinal pain in the absence of inflammation, especially in Cholera Morbus and overcomes nausea and vomiting. It controls diarrhea from debility with relaxation of the mucous structures of the intestinal canal.