Peppermint (scientific name ”Mentha piperita L.”), also called American mint, brandy mint, lamb mint, and lammint, is originally from Europe. It has leaves with serrated edges that are about 1 or 2 inches long and about twice as long as they are wide, sprouting from stems with a square cross-section.
Spearmint (scientific name ”Mentha spicata L.”), also called mint, brown mint, garden mint, lamb mint, mackerel mint, Our Lady’s mint, and sage of Bethlehem, is also native to Europe. It is similar in appearance to peppermint, but the leaves are usually stemless.
If you manage to see the plants in bloom, spearmint flowers form clusters that are narrower and more pointed than those of peppermint.
The two plants have distinct tastes, with spearmint’s coming mainly from a compound called carvone, which is relatively light and sweet in flavor.
Peppermint owes most of its taste to another substance, menthol, which has a mild anesthetic and cooling effect, making it especially valuable in medicines. Peppermint oil can also be topically applied to help ease tension headaches, can be consumed to help ease altitude sickness, and can act as a decongestant.
Reference: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2006/04/24/whats_the_difference_between_spearmint_and_peppermint/
What’s the difference between Peppermint and Spearmint?
January 23, 2009What is the difference between adverse and averse?
January 22, 2009To be averse to something is to have feelings against it, to be disinclined or opposed towards it. Averse can take the preposition to as well as from and usually describes an attitude. To be adverse to something (the only preposition it takes) is to be turned in an opposite direction to that thing or acting against it. Adverse also means ‘opposing or detrimental to one’s interests’ and usually refers to things, not people. A good way to remember the difference is that the prefix of averse is ab, or away and the prefix of adverse is ad, meaning towards. Examples of each are: I am averse to watching a lot of television. / We are dealing with adverse circumstances.
How many kilos in a stone?
January 18, 20091 stone = 6.35029318 kilograms
Why chili burns longer than wasabi
January 17, 2009Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for the burning sensation in chilli’s or chili based food like curry.
Capsaicin is an oil and is completely insoluble in water, which is why you need a fat containing substance such as milk to remove the burning sensation.
Capsaicin is also very soluble in alcohol, which is why beer and curry are such a good match.
Wasabi (and other mustard’s), on the other hand, comes from allyl isothiocynate which is more volatile as well as being soluble in water. This is why you get a fast and more intense short lived hit from wasabi.
Being extra vollatile it also evaporates much faster which is why you often feel it in your nasal passage and get watery eyes.
Orang-Utans can whistle
January 16, 2009…… or at least the orang-utan at a Washinton DC zoo does to pass the time.
What Do Mosquitoes Eat
January 15, 2009Mosquitoes do not eat blood. It is only the female mosquito that sucks blood (a common trait of all species of females in my opinion). They do this to aid in the reproductive process as but they need supplements, such as protein and iron, to enable them to develop and lay their eggs. So, if that’s the case, what are all the mosquitoes of the world doing for a feed?
Answer? Generally they feed on nectar from flowers, tree saps, fruits etc.
140 Million Years
January 15, 2009The age of the oldest spider web found on a UK beach inside of Amber.
Amber was not a woman.
Teach a man to fish
January 14, 2009Bed nets provided to slow the spread of Malaria are being used as fishing nets and wedding dresses in some parts of Kenya.
Pretty amusing, until their children contract malaria.
H5N1 Flu is the most feared strain of evolving bird flu
January 13, 2009WHO are trying to share vaacine results however some small countries are against it.
Moore’s Law
January 7, 2009The law that the number of tranistors on a circuit board will increase exponetially every 18 months (double).
This has held true since the 50’s and is expected to continue until at least 2015, however with all things exponential it will only have a certain shelf life.
Why?
Well once we get so small that transistors are running the size of an atom, where do we go from there?
Perhaps those answers will be discovered once the Large Hadron Collider starts churning out results.
Nugget of Knowledge 