Monarda. Monarda punctata. Horsemint.

Monarda. Monarda punctata L. Horsemint. Menthe de Cheval, Fr. Pferdeminze, Gr.—This is an indigenous perennial or biennal labiate, growing in light gravelly or sandy soils from New York to Texas and west to Wisconsin. The whole herb is employed. It has an aromatic odor, and a warm, pungent, bitterish taste, and abounds in a volatile oil, which may be separated by distillation with water. Herman J. M. Schroeter (A. J. P., 1888, 120) found the oil to consist of a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆ (56 per cent.), thymol, C₁₀H₁₄O (25 per cent.), and higher oxygenated compounds, C₁₀H₁₈O. Kremera (Ph. Rev., 1896, 223) examined the oil from authentic specimens and found it to yield from 56 to 61 per cent. of a phenol (thymol). Horsemint is stimulant and carminative, but is seldom used in regular practice. In the state of infusion it is occasionally employed in families as a remedy for flatulent colic and sick stomach, and for other purposes to which the aromatic herbs are applied. Monarda fistulosa L., wild bergamot, Oswego tea, an active diuretic (see Proc. A. Ph. A., 1895, 256; 1896, 238), contains, according to J. W. Brandel and E. Kremers, hydrothymoquinone, thymoquinone, besides cymene, carvacrol and limonene. (Ph. Rev., 19.) The oil of Monarda citriodora Cerv., or prairie bergamot, according to Brandel (P. J., 53, 547), contains 65 per cent. of a phenol and 1.2 per cent. citral. See also Midland Druggist, 1910, 526, and a paper by Nellie Wakeman in the Proc. A. Ph. A., 1910, 979. For the composition of monarda oils see Ph. Archiv., 1899, 73.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.