Mentha piperita phytochemicals in agriculture, food industry and medicine: Features and applications

Abstract

Mentha piperita L. (peppermint) is one of the most popular and widely consumed species worldwide, and is used in the medical as well as in industrial and culinary fields. The importance of M. piperita is mainly due to its essential oils (EOs) and polyphenols. The present work reviews various novelty aspects of M. piperita phytochemicals, including their components, processes used to obtain EOs and extracts, agricultural strategies for the induction of EO production, shelf-life processes, and their application in phytoremediation, animal science, herbicides, pesticides, food industries, and therapeutic issues. The amount and components of M. piperita EOs (MpEOs) available vary widely depending upon the region, climatic and agronomic conditions, the extraction technique and drying procedure. In recent years, different methodologies have been evaluated to enhance EO production and other phytochemicals, such as inoculation with plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, application of chemical elicitors, titanium dioxide nanoparticles, fly ash, and environmental factors. MpEOs and phenolic compounds possess high antimicrobial, antioxidant, antispasmodic, anthelmintic, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities. Due to the wide range of bioactivity and antioxidant activity, this is an interesting topic of research due to the growing usage of natural antioxidants as additives in food and cosmetics. However, further studies should be directed towards MpEOs and extract production and formulation, to enable their wide scale application.