File 2594 (11).qxd Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 42(1), 79-82, 2007 Introduction The two main types of commercial spearmint oil are obtained from the leaves of the peren- nial herbs Mentha spicata L. (Native spearmint) and Mentha cardiaca L. (Scotch spearmint). The spearmint plant reaches a meter in height at maturity. Spearmint is indigenous to England and is grown all over the world mainly in the USA with some recent development in China and South America (Lee and Fred, 1998). It is available in many Southeast Asian countries (Atal and Kapur 1982). The world market for spearmint oil is approximately 1500 tons/ year (Lee and Fred, 1998). The major end uses are in toothpaste and mouthwash, chew- ing gum and candy and food flavouring (Lee and Fred, 1998; Atal and Kapur, 1982 and Guenther, 1949). In Southeast Asian coun- tries M. spicata is commonly used as culinary purposes and digestive (Anonymous, 1962). The herb is considered to be carminative, stomachic and antispasmodic; given in hic- cup, flatulence, colicky pains, cholera etc (Reynolds, 1982; Yusuf, et. al. 1994 and Chopra, et. al. 1950). M. spicata is charac- terized by a high carvone content account for 60 - 70 % of the total oil accompanied by a limonene content of 8 - 15 % (Lee and Fred, 1998). The carvone content of M. cardiaca is also 60 - 70 %, but typically it has a higher limonene content of up to 20 % (Lee and Fred, 1998). The latter oil also has a men- thone content of up to 2 %, which is the prime indicator of Scotch spearmint (Lee and Fred, 1998). These two plants were intro- duced as a part of our flora enrichment pogramme of important exotic medicinal and aromatic plants and to study the aromatic properties of the oils. Chemical Constituents of Essential Oils from Two Types of Spearmint (Mentha spicata L. and M. cardiaca L.) Introduced in Bangladesh Jasim Uddin Chowdhury,a Nemai Chandra Nandi,a Minhaj Uddina and Majibur Rahmanb aBCSIR Laboratories, Chittagong-4220, Bangladesh bIGCRD, BCSIR, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh. Abstract Mentha spicata and M. cardiaca introduced in Bangladesh were studied for their essential oil content and compositions of the oil. The essential oil from M. spicata contains carvone (73.29 %), d-limonene (7.59 %) and dihydrocarvone (3.83 %) as major constituents out of the 21 components. The essential oil from M. cardiaca contains carvone (60.9 %) and limonene (21.58 %) as major constituents out of the 35 components. Materials and Methods Both M. cardiaca and M. spicata were col- lected from the experimental field of BCSIR Laboratories, Chittagong. The species were introduced from India. Oil content of these species was studied at the age of six months. Isolation of the oil The oil was isolated from the fresh herbs by hydrodistillation for 4 hrs. using a Clevenger type apparatus (Clevenger, 1982). The oil was dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate prior to analysis. The percentage of the essential oil was calculated on volume by fresh weight basis. GC/MS analysis The analysis of the oils were carried out by GC/MS electron impact ionization (EI) method on GC-17A gas chromatograph (Shimadzu) coupled to a GC/MS QP 5050A mass Spectrometer (Shimadzu); fused silica capillary column (30m x 2.5mm, 0.25 mm film thickness), coated with DB-5 (J&W), column temperature 100O C (2 min) to 250O C at the rate of 5O C/min; carrier gas, helium at constant pressure of 90 Kpa. Acquisition parameters full scan; scan range 40-350 amu. The compounds were identified using the NIST 127 and NIST 147 library data. Results and Discussion The oil content of M. spicata and M. cardia- ca was found to be 0.33 % & 0.41 % respec- tively. Table I shows the chemical con- stituents of the essential oils from Mentha spicata and M. cardiaca. The oil of M spicata contains 21 compounds of which carvone (73.29 %) was the major component followed by d-limonene (7.59 %), dihydrocarvone (3.83 %), a-bourbonene (1.67 %), trans-sabinenehydrate (1.57 %), 2-Naphthol,1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,7-octahydro-4a- methyl (1.47 %), trans-carveol (1.25 %), dihydrocarveol (1.12 %) and eucalyptol (1.01 %). The oil of M. cardiaca contains 35 components of which carvone (60.9 %) was the major component followed by limonene (21.58 %), eucalyptol (2.22 %), cis-carveol (1.43 %), menthone (1.38 %) and β-myrcene (1.11 %). Presence of 11 components (d- limonene, α-bourbonene, trans-carveol, car- veyl acetate, carvone, dihydrocarveol, dihy- drocarvone, eucalyptol, piperitone, 13- tetradecal, 1-yl-1-ol, jasmone) were common in both of the species. Findings revealed that the constituents are resembled that of the earlier reports.1,3,4,7 These introduced plants can be cultivated commercially for their higher oil content and as sources of higher carvone content. 80 Chemical Constituents of Essential Oils 42(1) 2007 Fig. 1. Carvone Fig. 2. D-limonene Sl. No. Name of compounds Molecular Molecular % content weight formula M. spicata M. cardiaca 1 Benzene, tert-butyl 134 C10H14 0.15 -- 2 α-Bourbonene 204 C15H24 1.67 0.95 3 Camphene 136 C10H16 -- 0.40 4 cis-Carveol 152 C10H16O -- 1.43 5 trans-Carveol 152 C10H16O 1.25 0.62 6 Carveyl acetate 194 C12H18O2 0.58 0.19 7 Carvone 150 C10H14O 73.29 60.90 8 Caryophyllene oxide 220 C15H24O 0.76 -- 9 Caryophyllene 204 C15H24 -- 0.74 10 Dihydrocarveol 154 C10H18O 1.12 0.13 11 α-Cubebene 204 C15H24 -- 0.14 12 Dihydrocarvone 152 C10H16O 3.83 0.95 13 Diisobutyl carbinol 144 C9H20O 0.93 -- 14 Cyclooctanol 128 C8H16O -- 0.11 15 Eucalyptol 154 C10H18O 1.01 2.22 16 4-Hydroxy-3,5,5- 154 C9H14O2 0.75 -- trimethylcyclohex-2-enoen 17 (+)-Isomenthol 156 C10H20O 0.37 -- 18 β-Farnesene 204 C15H24 -- 0.26 19 Jasmone 164 C11H16O 0.59 0.51 20 Furan, 2,5-diethyltetrahydro 128 C8H16O -- 0.09 21 Ledol 222 C15H26O 0.73 -- 22 D-Limonene 136 C10H16 7.59 21.58 23 Germacrene D 204 C15H24 -- 0.55 24 cis-3-Hexenol 100 C10H12O -- 0.07 25 trans-p-Mentha-2,8-dienol 152 C10H16O 0.23 -- 26 2-Naphthol,1,2,3,4,4a,5,6,7- 166 C11H18O 1.47 -- octahydro-4a-methyl 27 cis-3-Hexenyl isovalerate 184 C11H20O2 -- 0.15 28 Isomenthone 154 C10H18O -- 0.17 29 Piperitone 154 C14H18O 0.44 0.45 31 trans-Sabinenehydrate 154 C10H18O 1.57 -- Table I. Chemical constituents of essential oils from M. spicata and M. cardiaca Chowdhury, Nandi, Uddin and Rahman 81 References Anonymous. (1962) The Wealth of India: Raw materials. CSIR, New Delhi, India. VI, P. 344-346. Atal, C. K. and Kapur, B. M. (1982) Cultivation and Utilization of Aromatic plants. CSIR, Jammu-Tawi, India. P. 763. Chopra, R.N. Nayar, S. L. and Chopra, I. C. (1950) Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants, CSIR, New Delhi, India. P. 165-166. Clevenger, F. (1982) J. American Pharm. Assoc., 17: 346. Guenther. E. (1949) The Essential Oils. R. E. K Publishing Co., Huntington, New York. III, P. 676-683. Lee, P. and Fred, B. (1998) Spearmint: In A hand- book for Farmers and Investors. Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, Australian Government. Reynolds, E. E. (Ed). (1982) Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia, 28th Edition. The Pharmaceutical Press, London. P. 683. Yusuf, M. Chowdhury, J.U. Wahab, M.A. and Begum, J. (1994) Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Chittagong-4220, Bangladesh. P. 164. Received : May 14, 2006; Accepted : February 22, 2007 82 Chemical Constituents of Essential Oils 42(1) 2007 Sl. No. Name of Compounds Molecular Molecular % content weight formula M. spicata M. cardiaca 32 4-Terpineol 154 C10H18O 0.27 -- 34 Limonene oxide, trans 152 C10H16O -- 0.10 35 β-Linalool 154 C10H18O -- 0.04 36 Menthone 154 C10H18O -- 1.38 37 β-Myrcene 136 C10H16 -- 1.11 38 Octyl Cyclobutane carboxylate 212 C13H24O2 -- 0.12 39 β-Pinene 136 C10H16 -- 1.04 40 α-Pinene 136 C10H16 -- 0.80 41 L-Pinocarveol 152 C10H16O -- 0.15 42 Sabinene 136 C10H16 -- 0.79 43 β-Terpineol 154 C10H18O -- 0.19 44 L-4-Terpineol 154 C10H18O -- 0.13 45 13-Tetradeca-11-yn-1-ol 208 C14H24O 0.74 0.44 46 6-Undecanol 172 C11H24O -- 0.80 47 cis-Verbenol 152 C10H16O -- 0.14 Table I to be Cont.