Wonderful Catmint

Catmint is easily grown in any garden soil.  It does not seem to need as much water as other members of the mint family.  Dividing plants in Spring is a good way to increase your number of plants, or you can grow it from seeds.

Certainly most cats enjoy this plant, but mice and rats are said to be deterred where it is planted.

Catmint grows tall and as such makes a lovely border in your garden.

From the medicinal use point-of-view, catmint is a well known and extremely effective remedy for colic. Harvest the flowering tops when the plant is in full bloom, usually early in the morning.


Known as a carminative, tonic, diaphoretic, refrigerant, it is a very mild emmenagogue, specially, can be somewhat stimulating, and also an antispamodic, and nervine.  It can also ease a virus with cold or flu, and ease fretfulness.

Because this and other mints encourage perspiration it is a good tea for fever, while encouraging sleep.

Catmint is one of the most highly recommended herbs for children's colic. It is helpful too for restlessness,  and nervousness.

Making an infusion is the best way to use this herb.  Using freshly boiled pure water, add one ounce of the herb to one pint of water.  A child's dose is 2 teaspoonfuls given often to relieve pain and gas.

More here - Medicinal Mint

Now for my comment -
Mainstream articles sometimes irk me for various reasons.  One reason I find distressing is a "study" done by people who do not have a working knowledge of herbs.  They seem always to conclude that generally they do not work.

Media reports of the same study repeated until you are sick of hearing it also make it nothing more than a talking-head blabbering about what they are told to read during the news cast.

Herbal Remedies No Help for Colicky Babies
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/25564

Read my comment and those of several others, including my homeopathic colleague Dana Ullman.

	gayle eversole, dhom, phd, mh, crnp, nd - Mar 28, 2011 Articles such as this continually amaze me. First of all the bias against natural remedies is blatant. Secondly the caliber of the article is mediocre when I compare it to standards established by Health News Review along with my own standards honed during my education at various levels. Thirdly, as an advanced nursing practitioner and a person considered to be an expert in natural health, I have been helping parents and babies with colic for decades, using very simple herbal remedies. While this may all go away, the episodes are stressful for the parents and the infants as well. This attitude is rather dismissive. And I think we know how stress harms health. I'd suggest that the researchers try to interview someone with an extensive knowledge of herbs, natural remedies, their application and effects in the next study. After all, before all the GE pharmaceuticals, herbs were the basis of the National Formulary, and toxic acid reflux drugs were not given out with glad hands in deference to a few grains of acidophilus.
	Dr. Jacob R. Raitt - Mar 28, 2011 Just personally believe that the test was incomplete for the range of herbs used in these studies.
	K. Vilain - Mar 28, 2011 Why is there no information on the pooled results of the 8 trials deemed to have acceptable methodology? That is the outcomes of interest here. I see no evidence of what the title of the article implies. Were the 8 studies negative? Was meta-regression done?
	dana ullman, mph - Mar 28, 2011 One of the co-authors of this review of research was E. Ernst who has a known hyper-bias against alternative treatment modalities. I personally do not believe anything he writes.