Three and a half decades' worth of blissful fills coupled with lots of research, small talk and documentation gained me to become acquainted with the benefit of various soothing, non-irritating enema solutions - as a rule many of them, you guessed it, are herbal. Indeed they had always been my choice, still taking a good share of my sessions along with plain isotonic enemas.
Despite it being native European, outside central Italy spearmint is hard to come by even from well-endowed herbalists which mostly keep peppermint instead, because the premier domestic peppermint strain from Piedmont is highly prized and far more recognized by untrained people. it's been a long wait before in 2007 I first could try some genuine spearmint. And to confirm what I just said I had to hand pick some in the countryside. I took a few spearmint enemas since then and although I never ventured into deep experimentation with this herb alone I liked the concoction's impact on my innards. IMHO it deserves quite a bit of attention for its tonic and antiseptic properties, although some rather obscure reference about its toxicity on rats can be found on Wikipedia - not that I deem Wiki more than it deserves either. Spearmint is reputed to be soothing to the stomach, most likely from its peptic properties. It does contain much less menthol than peppermint though, which should make it gentler for the colon lining.
On occasion I tried peppermint too, only a pinch together along with mallow or balm-mint because I found menthol a bit irritating even if refreshing, Concentration matters! However I never dared a full peppermint enema until now and I still have to find a rationale to do so.
Recently I took a bit of experimentation with catnip which, unlike witin the USA, in Italy underwent a sad wane even from popular culture although it was in widespread use until 1700s overlapping the diffusion of tea. Nowadays very few herbalist sell it. This had been a long long wait too, before I could lay my hands on a batch of catnip. Living in an apartment with no ledges, balconies or decks, I can't grow anything and my best suited window sill is in my workplaceable living room where there's really no room for anything vegetal or plain organic. Actually I found some quality catnip seeds many years ago but I never got to spot a suitable place to plant them. Mom's balcony is already crowded with salvia, parsley and rosemary - no way. Sadly, the longtime friend of mine who told me she was growing catnip along with other aromatic herbs in a small communal garden inside a city park formerly occupied by a mental institution, and many months ago had promised me to plant and nurture my seeds, died from cancer last April. By the way she was the only child of a lady whom I know is into enemas, but I never had any chance of broaching the subject with her daughter in turn.
Only recently my family herbalist found some catnip himself so I bought about four ounces; but is a rather coarse cut, full of stems, and I don't know whether the allotted amount of pure leaves cut I read on various recipes found on the web as well as those I checked in an old herbalist's textbook would apply to my own batch. I first brewed some to drink it in order to taste it and to gauge any possible psychoactive effect as there's quite a debate going on about the effects of nepetalactone (a cycloalkane, the active molecule in its essential oil) on humans, even if foggy and inconsistent ranging from mild relaxation to nothing at all to a sort of shallow buzz - no two reports agree and even on cats the known effect is variable. Fact is, about fifteen minutes after a couple cups of very concentrated brew, something like 5-6 grams of dried herb in a good pint of boiling water, I unmistakably felt the onset of a fast vanishing 'something' More on that later, maybe. Let's move south now...
Until now I took only two catnip enemas, the first one two weeks ago with about ten grams in two liters and a week later with about fifteen grams in the same amount. Actually I took the second one among my usual preparation drill for an evening on stage. I was due to join a one-off band on the electric violin for a birthday concert and I was seeking undisturbed retention time to trigger max resonance effect on intramural tissue (which in turn has more to do with neurotransmitter producing cells than with the specific properties of a given herb, just to pin down things) but a few hours' practice left me too little time left to flush my colon as thoroughly as needed to totally empty and relax it in order to allow two full quarts to lazily soak cecum to rectum without rising unwanted peristalsis, so I quit at the first sign of muscular 'attention'. I took between 1800 and 1850 cc then I cut off the flow and went on floating away for about ten minutes, the average bout I find necessary to slow my heartbeat to idle, dive into meditative state and resume normal breathing from the gradual, shallow upshift during irrigation.
That happened two weekends ago and that Saturday night I literally flew on the strings until past 2:00 am without a hint of tiredness. Merely as a corollary, the collaboration offer I received after we got offstage has nothing to do with my lifelong enema fueled, ferretlike awareness. Absolutely nothing. If only that were true, that is... :-D
Spirits aside, along the whole evening I felt an even different yet sharply defined, deep and mellow relaxation which surely enhanced concentration and listening. Maybe it was the catnip or maybe not so much but I surely experienced one heavenly afterglow! I then helped the house soundman, a longtime buddy and mean guitarist himself, take the P.A. down, wind up cables, gather mikes, stow away racks etc. Then I shared a beer, made a wide see-you-next-time tour, shoved my things in the car, arrived home about 3:30 still as sharp as a pencil, turned on the radio, sipped a cold almond drink and hit the bed about a hour later. Contrary to my slightly annoying quirk, I could fall asleep pretty fast that night.
This being said, I'd be eager to talk both science and firsthand knowledge about various herbal solutions and their perceived effect (part objective and part subjective of course) with fellow klismos here. I guess many of them may be the "cramps - no thanks" type who seek pleasure and health rather than discomfort, plain anal stimulation, feel more than willing to mess with their guts or you-know-what else.
Well k2mm, turning to your question: did you name catnip and spearmint to focus this thread just on these two or did you rather mean to enquire whether someone among us had ever tried a blend of both herbs?