Chemical Composition, Olfactory Evaluation and Antioxidant Effects of Essential Oil from Mentha Canadensis

The chemical composition of the essential oil from cornmint (Mentha canadensis L.) was analyzed by GC/FID and GCMS. The main constituents were menthol (41.2%) and menthone (20.4%). It was established that cornmint oil had antiradical activity with respect to the DPPH and hydroxyl (OH•) radicals. The concentrations necessary for 50% neutralization of the respective radicals (IC50) were 365.0 μg/mL for DPPH and 0.3 μg/mL for OH•, which was indicative that the antioxidant activity in terms of OH• was higher than that of quercetin. Cornmint oil chelated the Fe3+ ions present in the solution. The oil demonstrated antioxidant activity in a linoleic acid emulsion model system, where at 0.1% concentration it inhibited the formation of conjugated dienes by 57.1% and the generation of secondary oxidized products of linoleic acid by 76.1%.