Essential oil composition ofMentha pulegium L. growing wild in the north-western Himalayas India

Hydrodistillation of the aerial parts of Mentha pulegium L., collected from the wild and recorded for the first time from different locations in the higher Himalayas, Jammu and Kashmir, India, provided refreshing pale-coloured essential oils with a characteristic minty flavour. Essential oils from different locations were qualitatively similar and were found to be a complex mixture of at least 45 compounds, of which 24 were identified. Eight compounds accounted for about 87–98% of the oil and were characterized as pulegone (65.9–83.1%), menthone (8.3–8.7%), isomenthone (3.8–4.0%), neo-menthol (0.7–1.3%), pulegol acetate (0.1–1.2%), piperitone (1.3–3.2%), γ-terpinene (0.9–1.2%), β-caryophyllene (0.1–0.9%) and β-caryophyllene oxide (0.3–1.9%) by capillary GC, GC–MS, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR.