 |
 |
According to my Merck Manual, Oil of Wintergreen (also called betula, sweet birch, or teaberry oil) is primarily methyl salicylate. It is used as a flavoring or in perfumery. Its medical use is as a counterirritant. In veterinary medicine it is applied to relieve pain in rheumatic conditions. Most important: It is toxic to humans in relatively small doses (30 ml. adults, 10 ml. children), so we need to be careful with it, especially if little children are likely to find it. Since another form of salicylic acid, acetylsalicylic acid, is the familiar pain killer, aspirin, it is no wonder that sniffing oil of wintergreen has a beneficial effect. I'm going to track some down for my husband to try. Hmmm! If this works, will we be about to revive a fashion of a century past .... carrying smelling salts! I can just visualize a PD support group meeting with the odor of wintergreen making everyone relax, including the guest speaker. For anyone interested in herbs, there is a web site that covers just about everything: Botannical.Com at http://www.botanical.com/index.html Especially interesting and useful is A Modern Herbal by Mrs. M. Grieve. This data base of over 800 herbs was "modern" in 1940, and while the medical information is outdated, the information about the various plants is detailed and still correct. Martha