Re: Mints?

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

Here's my take.
Steam distillation of plant fibers has continued since antiquity.
 Several of the aromatic crystalline distillates were found to have
therapeutic effects. They attracted the portmantmanteau label,
"camphor".
One of these, mint camphor or menthol comes from oil of peppermint.
Anesthetic, vascular stimulation and disinfectant effects are seen.
 Similarly thyme (the garden herb) is distilled to thymol.
 This has antiparasitic and anthelmintic action.

 For an example of 'what is old is new again', see p24 of February's
Scientific American.  Vesudevan of IIT finds that a thin oil of
peppermint film is mosquito repellent and a larvacide, especially
effective against Anopheles C. the local vector there.

 Now to the speculative answer - one would expect a herb derived
drug with anesthetic action to affect the senses involved in
tasting and oral sensation: the effect is noted to increase
with mouth breathing which might relate to its volatile mobility.

Water too, might enhance oil particle mobility on skin sensors
via the usual buoyancy method.

Brian W

At 10:58 3/8/00 -0800, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> ... the three tubs of water
> and two hands -- same person -- is homologous.  (For those who have
> missed this one:  hot, cold, and luke;  one each in hot and cold for
> about a min., then put them in the luke.  Strange, no?  Well the mint is
> similar to the hot water, in contrast the following water feels colder.
> The water also removes the "hot" mint stimulation.  If one were to
> remove the stimulation w/o a "temp.", I suspect that, "it" would feel
> cold.  Xpt.:  Try 37 deg. C. water.
>
> bc

> Cliff Parker wrote:
>
> > ... Why is it when a person
> > drinks water directly after eating a mint the water feels
> > colder?  Any ideas?
> >
> > Cliff Parker
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK