Mentha speices have been consumed for many years in oriental and Mediterrenean culture as tea and nutritional food addition (especially as known a new natural source antioxidant to lipid oxidation for now) due to their special flavour and aroma properties coming from its phenolic subtancces and volatile oil. These volatile compositions from Mentha speices are mainly used in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and perfumery industries. In this study, the total volatile oil contents [VOC] (0.35 – 3.00%), total phenolic contents [TPC] (80,11 – 219,2 mg/kg GAE) and antioxidant capacities [AOC] (DPPH, 11,73 – 64,80 %) in the shade-dried leaves of mints samples in which grown five different locations (Afyonkarahisar, Konya and Kütahya [Medical mint/Menta piperita L] and Ankara (Gölbaşı) and Burdur [Mentha spicata L/ Spearmint] were determined. In this study, the volatile oils obtained by a hydro-distillation method from shade-dried mint leaves (Menta piperita L. and Mentha spicata L.) in which grown five lacations of Turkey were investigated by gas chromatography-Flame Ionisation Detector- mass with an HP-Innowax column According to the results of the GC-MS analysis, menthol (25.30 – 48.85%) and trans menthon (1.22 – 45.40%) were characteristic major essential oil components in medicinal mint (Menta piperita L) samples while D-Carvone (62.08 – 78.48%) was determined as the characteristic major essential oil compound for spearmint (Mentha spicata L) samples. In addition, linalyl acetate and 1.8 Cineole were other common characteristic major components for both types of mint. The mint samples were classified and characterized chemometric method (Principal Component Analysis, PCA [explained totally PC1 and PC2 83.3%]) based on locations and some volatile compounds. There were a remarkable variations among TPC and volatile compounds of locations due to Mentha sub-species, different agroecological conditions and various harvest techniques, storage conditions.
This study was supported by Afyon Kocatepe University Scientific Research Commission (AKÜ-BAP No:19.FEN.BİL.48)