Peppermint is native to the Mediterranean but is now grown in other countries in Europe, America, and Asia. Discoveries prove that peppermint has been used since ancient times in Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and Japan. According to Greek myth, a nymph called Mentha was turned, in a fit of anger, into a mint plant by her lover's wife Persephone. According to Pliny, peppermint was used to crown the Greeks and Romans during feasts.