Effect of Extraction Methods on Polyphenols, Flavonoids, Mineral Elements, and Biological Activities of Essential Oil and Extracts of Mentha pulegium L.

Abstract

Our study evaluated the in vitro antioxidant properties, antibacterial and antifungal activities, anti-inflammatory properties, and chemical composition of the essential oils (EOs), total phenol, and total flavonoid of wild Mentha pulegium L. This study also determined the mineral (nutritional and toxic) elements in the plant. The EOs were extracted using three techniques—hydro distillation (HD), steam distillation (SD), and microwave-assisted distillation (MAD)—and were analyzed using chromatography coupled with flame ionization (GC-FID) and gas chromatography attached with mass spectrometry detector (GC-MS). The antioxidant effects of the EOs were tested with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ABTS (2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid), while the antibacterial and antifungal activities of the EO and methanolic extract were tested using Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans. Twenty-six compounds were identified in the essential oil, representing 97.73% of the total oil, with 0.202% yield. The major components were pulegone (74.81%), menthone (13.01%) and piperitone (3.82%). Twenty-one elements, including macro- and micro-elements (Ba, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sr, Th, U and Zn), were detected using neutron activation analysis (INAA) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), with the concentration of mineral element close to the FAO recommendation. The results show that the EOs and extracts from Mentha pulegium L. had significant antimicrobial activities against the microorganisms, including five human pathogenic bacteria, one yeast (Candida albicans), and one phytopathogenic fungi. The in vivo anti-inflammatory activities of the leaf extracts were confirmed. The results indicate that the EOs and extracts from Mentha pulegium L. have promising applications in the pharmaceutical industries, clinical applications, and in medical research.

Assessing the Health Risk and the Metal Content of Thirty-Four Plant Essential Oils Using the ICP-MS Technique

“…Even so, only for Pinus sylvestris L. was there a significant association between micro and macronutrients and their concentration in EOs comparable to other studies [63]. The role of macroelements in plant physiology was frequently discussed, even in those used for essential oil extraction [63]. Mg deficiency-induced foliar necrosis is responsible for old leaves' decline and dieback since the manganese in the plant is a mobile microelement that can be transferred from old leaves to younger ones, limiting the effects of deficiency.…”

“…The statistical analyses emphasized a strong relationship between macronutrients and toxic metals, which was expected for the essential oils with worldwide origins. Even so, only for Pinus sylvestris L. was there a significant association between micro and macronutrients and their concentration in EOs comparable to other studies [63]. The role of macroelements in plant physiology was frequently discussed, even in those used for essential oil extraction [63].…”

Quality Assessment of Medicinal Plants via Chemometric Exploration of Quantitative NMR Data: A Review

“…It is possible to monitor the changes in the concentrations of thousands of metabolites instantaneously by comparing the spectra from several samples, and so to observe the dynamic metabolic profiles [42]. This principle (also known as "metabonomics", "metabolomics", "metabolic fingerprinting", and "profiling") has been used in a variety of fields, including the quantification of drug toxicity [43,44], environmental metabolism [45,46], plant metabolism [47,48], and, more recently, natural product profiling [49]. Chemometric data analysis techniques can be used to develop mathematical design models to predict structure, activity, and metabolic relationships based on NMR spectroscopic data (or indeed any other multivariate analytical data) (Figure 1) [41].…”

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, feature-based molecular networking and biological activities against Solenopsis invicta of Citrus peel essential oils from Vietnam

“…Second, the steam distillation process temperature could be controlled more easily. Finally, several experiments suggested the steam distillation method could efficiently extract the essential oil and minor compounds (Messaoudi et al, 2021).…”