Chemical composition of essential oils of three ecotypes of Mentha spicata L. from Kohgiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran

Lamiaceae is one of the most important families of plants with global transmittal. The family is divided to two major groups: Lamioideae and Nepetoideae. Mentha L. genus has high genetic variation because of different ploidy levels and interspecific interspecific hybridization thus that is possible to select genotypes with excelsior traits as essence content. The genus includes 25 to 30 species that grow in temperate regions of Eurasia, Australia and South Africa. M. spicata, as the main specie belonging to the family Lamiaceae, is used in Iranian traditional medicine as a stomach pain-relieving agent, antispasmodic, digestive, and carminative. This study was done to identify composition of  the essential oil from the aerial parts of M. spicata L. that  were collected from three natural habitats, including Yasouj (S1), C.Sakht (S2), and Bahram-Beigi (S3) at Kohgiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran in 2012. The essential oil extracted by Clevenger apparatus, and analyzed by GC and identified by using GC/MS. Result indicated that there were 10, 14, and 10 compounds in essential oils from the aerial parts of the plants of S1, S2, and S3 populations, respectively. The major components in S1 were carvone (74.57%), 1,8-cineole (10.28%), limonene (8.41%), whereas S2 had piperitenone oxide (53.19%), 1,8-cineole (27.47%), β-caryophyllene (3.55%), and the main components of S3 were 1,8-cineole (8.79%), carvone (79.6%), and lmonene (3.53%). : Ecotypes harvested from CSakht and Bahram-Beigi are promising genetic stocks to increase piperitenone oxide and carvone as medicinal components in breeding programs.