Characterization of essential oils and volatiles from the aerial parts of <i>Mentha pulegium</i> L. (Lamiaceae) using microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD) and headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) in combination with GC-MS
Majid Mohammadhosseini, Alessandro Venditti, Behnam Mahdavi
Abstract
Herein, the chemical profiles of the essential oils and volatiles obtained from the aerial parts of Mentha pulegium L. (Lamiaceae) are reported respectively using microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD) and headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) approaches associated to gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) quantification. Using MAHD-GC-MS and HS-SPME-GC-MS techniques, 30 and 28 constituents were screened in the essential oils and volatiles of M. pulegium L. aerial parts with high prevalence of oxygenated monoterpenes and non-terpene hydrocarbons, respectively. Accordingly, in the characterized chemical profiles, carvone was found to constitute about 56.0% of the oil using the former technique (MAHD), whereas oleic acid (20.1%), carvone (17.7%) along with limonene (16.1%) were found as the major constituent components of the volatile profile using the latter approach (SPME). The two methods might be used in combination to obtain a wider set of information about the chemical composition of one specific plant sample.