Chemical Characterization, Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activities of Essential Oils of <i>Mentha viridis</i> L. and <i>Mentha pulegium</i> L. (L)

Abstract

The essential oils from Mentha viridis L. and Mentha pulegium L. were characterized by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). These oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and presented linalool (40.70%), carvone (13.52%) and α-terpinene (8.56%) as the principal constituents in the essential oil from Mentha viridis L. Pulegone (50.01%), menthol (31.90%) and menthone (16.56%) were the principal constituents in the essential oil from Mentha pulegium L. These essential oils (in concentrations ranging from 3.91 to 500 μL·mL −1 ) showed satisfactory activities against Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella choleraesuis and Staphylococcus aureus. The antioxidant activities with 2-deoxyribose and phosphomolybdenum and the reducing power (in concentrations ranging from 0.78 to 1000 μL·mL −1 ) were determined. The antioxidant activity was observed for the two oils evaluated by the phosphomolybdenum and 2-deoxyribose methods, whereas the essential oil from M. viridis presented low antioxidant activity in the reducing power assay.

Characterization of the Biological Potential of the Essential Oils from Five Species of Medicinal Plants

“…Silva et al [36] evaluated the antioxidant activity of the essential oil from the plants of the Lamiaceae family (Mentha pulegium and Mentha viridis) by the molybdenum reduction method. They found that a higher activity was observed for the essential oil from M. pulegium (50.0% of pulegone, 31.9% menthol and 16.6% menthone) than for the standard used (BHT), followed by the essential oil from M. viridis, which is composed of 40.7% linalool, 13.9% carvone and 8.6% α-terpinene.…”

“…Silva et al [36] observed a limited activity in reducing the iron ion for the essential oil from M. viridis. However, the activity observed for the essential oil from M. pulegium at the concentrations of 0.78 to 50 µL•mL −1 exceeded that of the BHT standard.…”

Antimicrobial Activity of the Essential Oil from <i>Hyptis carpinifolia</i> Benth

“…The antibacterial activity was determined using the Agar Cavity Diffusion technique according to the method described by Silva et al [9]. …”

Chemical Composition, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of the Essential Oils of Three Algerian Lamiaceae Species

“…Only very few reports on the determination of the antioxidant activity of the essential oil using Phosphomolybdenum assay and applied for of T. vulgaris were found in literature [7][8][9]. For these reports, the antioxidant values are difficult to use for comparison purpose since different methods of expressions or different antioxidant of reference were engaged.…”