Abstract:
The essential oils of leaves of Mentha pulegium, a traditional herbal medicine in Morocco, were extracted by hydrodistillation and analysed by gas chromatography equipped with flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS), to determine the chemical composition of the volatile fraction and identify their chemotypes. Twenty eight constituents were identified. The essential oil yield and the percentage of identified compounds were 1.66% and 97.34% respectively. The major component was piperitone (35.56%), other predominant constituents were: piperitenone (21.18%), α-terpineol (10.89%), pulegone (6.452%), piperitone oxide (4.02%), menthol (3.28%), menthone (3.09%), neomenthol (2.80%), menthofuran (2.15%), isomenthone (1.56%), carvone (1.13%), geranyl acetate (1.06%), germacrene D (1.03%) and limonene (1.02%).
