The plant or its products are available in most parts of the world for flavoring, cosmetic, and medicinal uses. Scientific studies have confirmed a rational basis for traditional uses of the plant, while suggesting further safe and effective use of peppermint oil products as a direct or adjunct therapy in modern practice. Peppermint is a perennial native to Europe, growing to three feet in height, and spreading by runners traveling across the soil surface. The stems are usually reddish-purple and smooth. The leaves are often longer and less wrinkled than those of spearmint.
Flowers are pinkish or lilac.
Historically, peppermint has variously been considered as a botanically unstable species, subspecies, or variety of various mints, producing a high percentage of menthol in its essential oil, or with oils possessing the properties of peppermint oil. Commercial cultivation of peppermint is recorded in England as early as 1750. However, as late as 1805, it was still not grown in the famous peppermint-producing area of Mitcham. On the European continent, its commercial cultivation is recorded near Utrecht in 1770. Initial production in the United States is recorded in the 1790s in Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.