Chemical Characterization and Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Insecticidal Properties of Essential Oil from Mentha pulegium L

Allali Aimad; Rezouki Sanae; Fadli Anas; El Moussaoui Abdelfattah; Mohammed Bourhia; Ahmad Mohammad Salamatullah; Abdulhakeem Alzahrani; Heba Khalil Alyahya; Nawal A Albadr; Agour Abdelkrim; Azeddin El Barnossi; Eloutassi Noureddine

doi:10.1155/2021/1108133

Chemical Characterization and Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Insecticidal Properties of Essential Oil from Mentha pulegium L

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021 Oct 15:2021:1108133. doi: 10.1155/2021/1108133. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Animal and Plant Production, and Agro-Industry, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University BP 133, Kenitra 14000, Morocco.
² Southwest Florida Research and Agricultural Center, IFAS, University of Florida, Immokalee, FL 34142, USA.
³ Laboratory of Biotechnology, Environment, Agrifood and Health, Faculty of Science, University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez 30050, Morocco.
⁴ Laboratory of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Nutrition, and Environment, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University Hassan II, Casablanca 20000, Morocco.
⁵ Department of Food Science & Nutrition, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Laboratory of Natural Substances, Pharmacology, Environment, Modeling, Health & Quality of Life, Faculty of Sciences, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco.
⁷ Regional Center for the Trades of Education and Training (CRMEF), Fez, Morocco.

Abstract

The chemical composition and antibacterial, insecticidal, and antioxidant properties of the essential oil from Mentha pulegium L. (M. pulegium) growing in Morocco were investigated in this work. To achieve this goal, the oils were obtained by using hydrodistillation before being characterized by GC-MS. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were conducted against pathogenic strains using the disc diffusion and MICS bioassays. The insecticidal activity was carried out versus C. maculatus using contact and inhalation tests. The antioxidant activity was performed by using DPPH and total antioxidant capacity bioassays. The chemical analysis of the oil showed that 20 compounds were identified, which represented 98.91% of the total oil. In the oil, the main components detected were R-(+)-pulegone (76.35%), carvone (5.84%), dihydrocarvone (5.09%), and octanol-3 (2.25%). The essential oil has moderate-to-strong broad-spectrum antibacterial and antifungal properties; the results showed that B. subtilis was the most sensitive strain to M. pulegium oil, with the largest inhibition diameter (25 ± 0.33). For the antifungal activity, the results obtained indicated that Aspergillus niger was the most sensitive fungal strain to M. pulegium oil with an inhibition percentage up to 100%. Regarding the insecticidal activity, the inhalation test showed a high efficacy (100% mortality), and a lethal concentration of LC₅₀ = 1.41 + 0.48 μL/L air was obtained after 24 hours of exposure. Moreover, the contact test showed that a total reduction in fertility and emergence was obtained with a dose of 20 μL/mL of acetone. Regarding the antioxidant activity, the sample concentration necessary to inhibit 50% of HE radicals (IC₅₀) was 7.659 mg/mL (DPPH) and 583.066 57.05 mg EAA/g EO (TAC).