Characterization of essential oils and volatiles from the aerial parts of Mentha pulegium L. (Lamiaceae) using microwave-assisted hydrodistillation (MAHD) and headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) in combination with GC-MS.

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.