The Wonderful Activities of the Genus Mentha: Not Only Antioxidant Properties

Abstract

: Medicinal plants and their derived compounds have drawn the attention of researchers due to their considerable impact on human health. Among medicinal plants, mint (Mentha species) exhibits multiple health beneficial properties, such as prevention from cancer development and anti-obesity, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and cardioprotective effects, as a result of its antioxidant potential, combined with low toxicity and high efficacy. Mentha species are widely used in savory dishes, food, beverages, and confectionary products. Phytochemicals derived from mint also showed anticancer activity against different types of human cancers such as cervix, lung, breast and many others. Mint essential oils show a great cytotoxicity potential, by modulating MAPK and PI3k/Akt pathways; they also induce apoptosis, suppress invasion and migration potential of cancer cells lines along with cell cycle arrest, upregulation of Bax and p53 genes, modulation of TNF, IL-6, IFN-γ, IL-8, and induction of senescence phenotype. Essential oils from mint have also been found to exert antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and many others. The current review highlights the antimicrobial role of mint-derived compounds and essential oils with a special emphasis on anticancer activities, clinical data and adverse effects displayed by such versatile plants.

The Effects of Curcumin on Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review

“…Owing to the aforementioned detrimental effects of oxidative stress on the development of T2DM and the progression of its vascular complications, antioxidant therapy has been considered a potentially effective approach (11,12).…”

Conifers Phytochemicals: A Valuable Forest with Therapeutic Potential

“…While only a few phytochemical compounds obtained from natural products have been developed into clinically active drugs, their bioactive components may be used as a basis for the development of more successful analogues and prodrugs using chemical techniques such as metabolomics, complete or combinatorial fabrication, and biosynthetic pathway modification [ 139 ]. Many phytochemical compounds are highly efficient in inducing apoptosis and cytotoxicity by modulating different MAPK andAKT/PI3K pathways, and suppress cancer cells line invasion and migration potential along with the stimulation of senescence phenotype, regulation of Bax or p53 genes, cell cycle arrest and modulation of IL-8, IFN-γ, TNF, IL-6 [ 140 ]. Many of the compounds derived from conifers’ bark and leaves act as antitumor drugs, such as paclitaxel (PTX) (trade name Pycnogenol ® and Taxol ® ), a diterpene found in the crude extract of P. pinaster and Taxus brevifolia bark [ 141 ].…”

Antioxidant Activity and Molecular Docking Study of Volatile Constituents from Different Aromatic Lamiaceous Plants Cultivated in Madinah Monawara, Saudi Arabia

“…The biological activity of the essential oils of M. longifolia cultivated in Madinah has been studied by many authors and associated with antimicrobial, antimalarial, antileishmanial, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and other activities [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. M. longifolia displayed a lower antimicrobial activity against Leishmania donovani promastigotes compared to other lamiaceous plants, like Mentha australis or Teucrium polium L., and also lower antifungal properties toward Candida krusei and C. glabrata [ 4 ].…”

“…M. longifolia displayed a lower antimicrobial activity against Leishmania donovani promastigotes compared to other lamiaceous plants, like Mentha australis or Teucrium polium L., and also lower antifungal properties toward Candida krusei and C. glabrata [ 4 ]. In contrast, M. longifolia oil possesses stronger antioxidant and antibacterial activity compared to M. polegium , due to its higher flavonoid content, which makes it a good protector for cardiovascular and throat health [ 3 , 5 ]. The chemical composition of M. longifolia cultivated in Madinah is a debated issue because of remarkable discrepancies, raising the need for more investigation of the oil [ 4 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…However, the essential oil of M. spicata cultivated in Pakistan and Tunisia displayed effectively scavenged DPPH free radicals, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation, and high activity against S. epidermidis and S. aureus , as well as Gram-negative cells of Salmonella spp. and E. coli [ 5 ]. Similarly, O. majorana oil showed antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, and acetylcholinesterase properties based on plants cultivated in Tunisia [ 8 ].…”