Abstract
This work was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant activity of the essential oil obtained from the aerial part of Mentha pulegium. The antioxidant power of the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus was evaluated by using three methods: free radical-scavenging activity, reducing power and liver lipid peroxidation assay. Results showed that Mentha pulegium oil displayed good quality according to its physicochemical characteristics, and a higher yield 5.1 ± 0.2%. The essential oil of Mentha pulegium showed a higher DPPH radical scavenging activity 90.54 ± 1.5 % at a concentration of 1000 µg/mL. This value was close to the results obtained with ascorbic acid 96.23 ± 1.2%, and catechin 94.50 ± 1.4%. This oil exhibited significant potential for reducing iron (the value observed by optical density was 1.8 ± 0.3), while ascorbic acid and catechin provided an OD of 2.069 ± 0.03 and 2.66 ± 0.016 at the same concentration of 1000 µg/mL. The tested oil protected against lipid peroxidation induced by Fe+2, and considerably increased the percentage of anti lipid peroxidation in a dose-dependent manner. The studied oil displayed a good degree of antioxidant activity and can be exploited in food and pharmaceutical industries.
Highlights
Plants are a real source of natural and medicinal products once serving as the source of all drugs (Balandrin et al, 1993)
Mentha pulegium showed greater yield compared with the cited research such as 1.45 ± 0.01% reported by Abdelli et al (2016) and 1.8% cited by Benabdallah et al (2018)
The IC50 parameter commonly used to measure the antioxidant activity is necessary for each essential oil to reduce 50% of DPPH radical concentration in a defined period of time; a low IC50 value corresponds to a higher antioxidant activity
Summary
Plants are a real source of natural and medicinal products once serving as the source of all drugs (Balandrin et al, 1993). The imbalance between reactive oxygen species and antioxidant defense system may lead to the chemical modification of biologically relevant macromolecules (DNA, carbohydrates, proteins or lipids) These patho-biochemical mechanisms cause the development of different diseases (Troszynska et al, 2002). The flowering aerial parts of Mentha pulegium have been traditionally used in food preparation and as antimicrobials (Mahboubi and Haghi, 2008), in the treatment of cold, sinusitis, cholera, food poisonings, bronchitis and tuberculosis (Zargari, 1990) It is used as antispasmodic, carminative, anti-inflammatory, diuretic, antitussive, antiflatulent and menstruation agent (Bouyahya et al, 2017a; Nickavar and Jabbareh, 2018). The purpose of the present work was to determine the in vitro antioxidant activity of the essential oil extracted from the aerial part of Mentha pulegium
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