Chemical composition and functional properties of essential oils from Mentha species

The plants of the genus Mentha are widely used in cooking, cosmetics and popular medicine. The present work analyzes the chemical composition of the essential oils of several Mentha species, and evaluates some functional properties such as antioxidant, anticholinesterase and antifungal, to corroborate their medicinal use. The oils obtained by hydrodistillation showed higher levels of the monoterpenes limonene, isomenthone, menthol, menthofuran, n-neoisomenthol, 1,8-cineole (eucalyptol), D-carvone, linalool, linalyl acetate, piperitenone oxide and pulegone. The essential oil of Mentha longifolia (Himalayan silver mint) stood out for its antioxidant activity with IC50 of 0.86 +/- 0.01 mg/mL by the DPPH method and 0.64 +/- 0.02 mg/mL by the method of beta-carotene/linoleic acid system. Mentha piperita oils (chocolate mint) and Mentha spicata (menthol mint) showed good inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, with enzyme inhibition zones of 1.0 cm and 0.9 cm, respectively. The antifungal activity of Mentha essential oils showed moderate activity against Trichophyton rubrum and Microsporum canis, and the oil of M. spicata (Ciudad del Leste mint) showed MIC and MFC near to the control. The major components of the essential oils could be responsible for evaluated activities, which are associated with the medicinal properties reported for Mentha species. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.