Spearmint Essay

THE EFFECT OF WATER STRESS ON GROWTH & PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF Mentha spicata L.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
“Medicinal and aromatic plants are of prime economic importance because of the continuous and increasing demand for their products by local and foreign markets” (Khalid, 2006). This is due to the uses of the herbs in food, flavoring, medicine or perfume. Herbs cultivation has become a culture to Malaysians. They find out planting herbs in housing area more economically than buy it due to the high price of the herbs in the market.
Herbs can be defined as any plant valued for its medicinal properties, flavor, or scent (cited in Elbert and Elbert, 1974). There are many type of herbal plants that can be found in Malaysia. Each of the herbal plants has its own benefits and characteristics. One of the herbal plants that have many benefits is Mentha spicata (Spearmint). The

There are many type of mint that can be found in Malaysia such as Spearmint, Basil, Rosemary and others. Mint can be classified under family Lamiaceae.
Variation of mint can be seen by looking towards their leaf form, flower spikes and flavor. However, all of them still have the same features such as square stem, flower colour, leaves arrangement and its growth. Leaves vary from thin and slickly shiny to broad and woolly (Rutherford).
Habit of most species in mint is either uniformly prostrates or upright, some species, such as M. pulegium, assume an upright stance only at the time of flowering (Tucker and Naczi, 2007)
Mint can be propagating by stolon. Stolon will produce long and thin rhizomes. Stolon can be define as “a sucker, runner, or any basal branch, which is disposed to root,” while a rhizome is “the rootstock or dorsiventral stem or root-like appreance, prostrate or underground, sending of rootlets, the apex progressively sending up stems or leaves” (cited in Jackson,