where does the flavor wintergreen come from

Where does the minty flavor of wintergreen come from?

The minty flavor comes from the chemical methyl salicylate, produced by the plant. In fact, pure oil of wintergreen is methyl salicylate. People used to distill it from Gaultheria procumbens, or from another plant which produces it, the black birch ( Betula lenta). But these days, pure oil of wintergreen is chemically synthesized.

Where does wintergreen oil come from?

People used to distill it from Gaultheria procumbens, or from another plant which produces it, the black birch ( Betula lenta). But these days, pure oil of wintergreen is chemically synthesized. The nerds among us might recognize that methyl salicylate sounds a lot like acetyl salicylate, or aspirin. And it is a lot like aspirin.

What is Wintergreen used for in cooking?

Wintergreen. The whole plant, particularly the leaves, is a source of the volatile oil that has made wintergreen ’ s spicy, sweet taste very popular. Wintergreen oil is used to flavor gum, candy, toothpaste, mouthwash, and birch beer (a carbonated soft drink). The oil is also used in topical antiseptics and liniments.

What does wintergreen smell like?

Wintergreen has a strong "minty" odor and flavor; however, the Gaultheria -genus plants are not true mints, which belong to the genus Mentha.

What is the flavor of wintergreen?

mintyWintergreen has a strong "minty" odor and flavor; however, the Gaultheria-genus plants are not true mints, which belong to the genus Mentha. Wintergreen also is used in some perfumery applications and as a flavoring agent for toothpaste, chewing gum, soft drinks, confectionery, Listerine, and mint flavorings.

Is wintergreen a natural flavor?

Wintergreen Oil, Natural 1 oz. Wintergreen Oil (Gualtheria procumbens) is a pure, natural essential oil and is used as a flavoring for its powerful mint flavor and aroma.

How do I make wintergreen flavoring?

How to make wintergreen extractAdd torn wintergreen leaves to a small jar until 2/3 to 3/4 full.Pour in enough 80 or 100 proof vodka to cover the leaves.Cap the jar, shake it, and keep it in a dark place at room temperature for at least a month. ... Taste it every now and then to see how strong it is.

What is the active ingredient in wintergreen?

The active ingredient in wintergreen oil, methyl salicylate, is closely related to aspirin and has analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. As such, products containing wintergreen oil are often used as an anti-inflammatory and topical pain reliever.

Can you eat wintergreen?

OK: Wintergreen Berries Wintergreen is a common ground cover plant in the northern tier of the United States and much of Canada. Its leaves are dark green and waxy, and the plants produce a red berry (also known as teaberry) that is perfectly safe to eat.

Does root beer have wintergreen in it?

Ingredients in early and traditional root beers include allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum chips, sarsaparilla, spicewood, wild cherry bark, yellow dock, prickly ash bark, sassafras root, vanilla beans, dog grass, molasses ...

What is wintergreen flavoring made out of?

wintergreen, any of several evergreen, aromatic plants of the heath family (Ericaceae). Oil of wintergreen, derived from the leaves of Gaultheria procumbens, is a volatile oil used as a flavouring for candies and chewing gum and in the treatment of muscular aches and pains.

Is there wintergreen extract?

Description. Our Pure Wintergreen Extract, Natural can be used for baking, beverages (including tea, beer, wine and spirits) confectionery and dentifrice products. Wintergreen is a small plant with red berries that grows in China, Canada and the northeastern United States.

What is the difference between peppermint and wintergreen?

Peppermint is strong. Wintergreen a little milder and spearmint has a mild mint flavor. 4 of 4 found this helpful.

Is wintergreen good for arthritis?

The leaves and oil are used to make medicine. Wintergreen leaf is used for painful conditions including headache, nerve pain (particularly sciatica), arthritis, ovarian pain, and menstrual cramps.

Is wintergreen good for your stomach?

The leaves are also beneficial for preventing and treating digestion problems, including stomachaches, cramps, gas and bloating. Wintergreen oil can be used in small doses to increase stomach acid and juices that help improve digestion.

What is the medical uses of wintergreen?

Wintergreen oil is made by steam processing of warmed, water-soaked wintergreen leaves. The leaves and oil are used to make medicine. Wintergreen is used for headache and other types of pain, fever, gas (flatulence), and other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.

What is the difference between peppermint and wintergreen?

Peppermint is strong. Wintergreen a little milder and spearmint has a mild mint flavor. 4 of 4 found this helpful.

Is there wintergreen extract?

Description. Our Pure Wintergreen Extract, Natural can be used for baking, beverages (including tea, beer, wine and spirits) confectionery and dentifrice products. Wintergreen is a small plant with red berries that grows in China, Canada and the northeastern United States.

Is wintergreen related to peppermint?

Wintergreen: How they're different. You can always rely on Peppermint to get the job done, but Wintergreen is a breath of fresh air in more ways than one! You may be surprised to learn that these oils aren't related; in fact, wintergreen isn't even a part of the mint family.

Is wintergreen oil the same as peppermint oil?

Is wintergreen the same as peppermint? No, these two oils come from two different plants, but they have similar cooling effects and are often used in the same ways, such as to lower pain.

Where do wintergreens grow?

Gaultheria procumbens is native to eastern North America and grows wild in sandy, wooded areas or shady clearings. This shrub grows 4-6 in (10-15 cm) high with creeping stems. Stalks grow from the stems and have elliptical, shiny green leaves and leathery leaves. During mid-summer, white, drooping, bell-shaped flowers grow; in the fall, wintergreen has bright red edible berries. The berries, called deerberries or checkerberries, contain several seeds and remain on the plants into the winter season.

What is wintergreen?

The name wintergreen is also sometimes applied to two other members of the genus Gaultheria, as well as three other unrelated plants: 1 Gaultheria hispidula is also called wintergreen. It is supposed to remove the predisposition to cancer from the body. 2 Gaultheria shallon, sallol, is found in northwest America. Its berries are edible and quite tasty. 3 Pytola rotundiflora is also known as false wintergreen or British wintergreen. It was formerly used as a vulnerary. 4 Chimophila umbellata and Maculata are both called by a variety of names: bitter wintergreen, rheumatism weed, spotted wintergreen, or pipsissewa. North American natives used these two herbs for the treatment of indigestion , rheumatism, scrofula, and as a diuretic. 5 Trientalis europaea, or chickweed wintergreen, is native to England and was used in the past externally in an ointment used in healing wounds , and internally as a tea to treat blood-poisoning and eczema.

How to make wintergreen oil?

Oil of wintergreen, as noted previously, is made by first steeping wintergreen leaves in water for at least 24 hours, and then allowing this mixture to ferment and release its oil. Fermentation is known to have occurred when the characteristic wintergreen aroma is released. This oil is sometimes used externally in dilute solutions in combination with other products such as aloe and lanolin to produce ointments, but either the oil extracted from sweet birch or the synthetic version are more apt to be used.

What is wintergreen oil used for?

Wintergreen oil is used as flavoring for candies, chewing gum, and medicines. With eucalyptus or menthol, it is often used to flavor toothpaste and other dental products. The berry, often called checkerberry, is used for flavoring candies. It is sometimes used as a tea by itself, or combined with tea as a flavoring; hence its name teaberry.

What is Pytola Rotundiflora?

Pytola rotundiflora is also known as false wintergreen or British wintergreen. It was formerly used as a vulnerary.

Does wintergreen oil hurt?

True oil of wintergreen, distilled from wintergreen leaves, is very rapidly absorbed by the skin and often causes severe skin irritation and painful, hive-like skin eruptions.

Can you take oil of wintergreen internally?

Oil of wintergreen should not be taken internally. In the past, it has been given in a capsule form to treat rheumatism, but excessive doses of it have actually caused death due to severe inflammation of the stomach and gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

What is the flavor of wintergreen?

If you’ve ever tasted teaberry gum, you already know the flavor of wintergreen. It’s a subtle, minty flavor, more complex and sophisticated than peppermint or spearmint. Wintergreen was once such a popular tea plant that it was given the common name teaberry (hence the name of the gum).

How does wintergreen spread?

Wintergreen spreads by underground rhizomes and often forms large clumps. Since it’s a small plant, it’s easily hidden by other, taller plants during the growing season. But in late fall, when deciduous vegetation dies back, the shiny, evergreen leaves of wintergreen are easy to spot.

Where does wintergreen grow?

Wintergreen in a mixed oak forest. It grows in most of eastern North America, according to the USDA Plants Database range map. Like other members of the heath family, it prefers acidic soils. It is often found in pine/oak forests, especially where other heath family shrubs (like blueberry and huckleberry) grow.

What is wintergreen oil?

The minty flavor comes from the chemical methyl salicylate, produced by the plant. In fact, pure oil of wintergreen is methyl salicylate. People used to distill it from Gaultheria ...

How much oil of wintergreen can kill an adult?

A teaspoon (7 grams) of pure oil of wintergreen can kill an adult, and 4.7 grams can kill a child, as you can see here. But relax. An alcohol extract is not pure oil of wintergreen, and you wouldn’t consume a whole teaspoon at once. You would add about a teaspoon of an extract to an entire batch of cookies. How many wintergreen berries can you ...

What is the name of the shrub that is a wintergreen?

Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens. Gaultheria procumbens goes by several nicknames in addition to wintergreen: teaberry, checkerberry, deerberry, and boxberry, to name a few. If you’re not familiar with wintergreen flavor, it’s delightfully minty. Whenever I see this common, diminutive evergreen shrub – yes, it is a shrub – I think ...

How to make vodka from wintergreen leaves?

Add torn wintergreen leaves to a small jar until 2/3 to 3/4 full. Pour in enough 80 or 100 proof vodka to cover the leaves. Cap the jar, shake it, and keep it in a dark place at room temperature for at least a month. Shake the jar every day or two.

How big are wintergreen berries?

The flowers are followed by bright red berries, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch in diameter . The berries have a distinct wintergreen flavor, but they are not juicy; the texture is about as appealing as styrofoam.

How tall is Wintergreen?

General characteristics of wintergreen. This tiny evergreen shrub reaches about 6 inches in height and spreads by means of long rhizomes. The oval leaves are 1-2 inches long. While there are many other little plants with oval leaves gracing the forest floor, wintergreen leaves have a distinctive minty scent when torn.

Where do wintergreens grow?

In their native habit, wintergreen plants grow in the dappled shade of temperate forests, where they creep along and form dense colonies among other acid-loving plants like mountain laurels and rhododendrons. Wintergreen plants don't need nutrient-rich soil, but they do appreciate good drainage.

What is wintergreen plant?

She has years of experience in caring for flowers and plants. Wintergreen plants have edible berries, and bitter-tasting but mint-scented leaves that grow abundantly in North America and make a showy ground cover in shady gardens.

How to grow wintergreens from seed?

Stratification —a period of cold dormancy that triggers germination—is necessary to grow wintergreen plants from seed. To grow seeds after stratification, take these steps: 1 Place some seeds in a plastic bag filled with peat moss for 12 weeks before the last frost. 2 After the cold treatment, move the seeds to a bright spot. 3 Press them into a mix of potting soil and peat. 4 Transplant outdoors after two sets of leaves form.

What are the leaves of wintergreens used for?

Wintergreen plant leaves are also used in herbal tea, but they are not loved by all due to their bitterness.

What is the pH of wintergreens?

You can perform a soil test to check the acidity of your soil, and if the pH is higher than 6.5, you must lower it with acid-rich amendments like peat moss, which also helps with drainage issues.

What is the best climate for wintergreens?

Temperature and Humidity. Areas with mild summer temperatures and average to high humidity, as found in the Northeastern United States, are favorable to wintergreen plants. The plants fare poorly in the hot, dry sun of the Southwest.

How to keep wintergreens moist?

Wintergreen plant leaves are also used in herbal tea, but they are not loved by all due to their bitterness. Keep the plants in bright filtered light, and keep them moist. A cool room will be less stressful for the plants than a hot window.

Description

• Though several different plants are called by this name, true wintergreen is Gaultheria procumbens, a lowgrowing species of shrub common in sandy coastal regions and woodlands of eastern North America from Georgia to New Foundland. It is a member of the heath, or Ericaceae, family. Other names by which wintergreen is known include aromatic wintergr...

See more on encyclopedia.com

General Use

Preparations

Precautions

Side Effects

Resources