Assessment of Variations in Essential Biochemical Components of Four Mentha Species Grown Under Mid-Hill Condition

The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the variations in essential biochemical components of four Mentha species. It was found that there was a significant variation in various biochemical constituents and they were present in the range of 1.530 to 3.140 mg/g (total chlorophyll), 1.010 to 1.815 mg/g (chlorophyll ‘a’), 0.495 to 1.325 mg/g (chlorophyll ‘b’), 40.770 to 65.825 μg/g (total carotenoids), 26.745 to 37.340 mg/100g (ascorbic acid), 0.650 to 8.360 per cent (total phenols), 62.510 to 84.620 per cent (moisture content), 9.930 to 15.875 per cent (ash content), 938.650 to 2041.705 mg/100g (potassiumcontent), 178.275 to 536.890 mg/100g (sodium content), 0.325 to 0.705 per cent (crude fat) and.026 to 0.066 ÄOD/min (Polyphenol oxidase activity). From overall study it was concluded that among four Mentha species, M. piperata showed the highest value of various constituents such as total chlorophyll (2.664 mg/g), chlorophyll ‘a’ (1.563 mg/g), chlorophyll ‘b’ (1.102 mg/g), total carotenoids (58.9 μg/g), total phenols (4.69%), moisture (75.6%) and fat content (0.58%) (except ascorbic acid, ash and Na and K content) whereas M. longifolia exhibited highest value for ascorbic acid (32.7 mg/g), ash content (13.8%) and sodium (374.6 mg/g) and potassium (1578.9 mg/g) content.