• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.261-267
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• 2005

Alcohol metabolizing and antioxidant activity of Mentha species were investigated in rat liver. Fifty six Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into seven groups such as normal (ethanol excluded), negative control (40% ethanol (10 g/kg of body weight/day) fed), positive control (1 g Silymarin/kg of body weight/day with ethanol fed), two Mentha viridis extracts (0.2 g & 1 g M. viridis methanol ext./kg of body weight/day with ethanol fed) and two M piperita extracts (0.2 g & 1 g M. piperita methanol ext./kg of body weight/day with ethanol fed) groups. After 2 weeks, rats were sacrificed under ether. The activities of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), catalase (CAT), manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GAH-px) and the content ofthiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) in the rat livers and the activity of glutamate pyruvate transferase (GPT) in serum were evaluated. From the analyses, 1 g M. viridis and 0.2 g M. piperita administrated groups showed higher ADH and ALDH activity than the other groups. Groups fed with 0.2 g and 1 g M. viridis ext. and 0.2 g M. piperita ext. showed higher CAT activity than the other groups. All the Mentha extract fed groups exhibited more effective in recovering Mn-SOD, GSH-px and GPT acitivities to a similar degree of normal group. TBARS contents of two M. viridis ext. fed group and 0.2 g M. piperita ext. fed group were higher than those of the other groups. M. viridis extract fed groups showed more effective in CAT and Mn-SOD activities than M. piperita extract groups at p < 0.05. Finally, it is concluded that both Mentha species have alcohol metabolizing and antioxidant activity and M viridis is more effective than M. piperita.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.255-260
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• 2005

For selecting a new candidate as functional material, this study was conducted on in vitro antioxidant activity and total phenol content of methanol and water extracts prepared from two Mentha species (M viridis L. (M spicata L.) and Mentha piperita L, Extracts of M. viridis showed more efficient scavenging activity on superoxide and DPPH ${({\alpha},{\alpha}-diphenyl-{\beta}-picrylhydrazyl)}$ radical and inhibitory activity on oxidation of human low density lipoprotein (LDL) induced by $CuSO_4$ and auto-oxidation of linoleic acid than those of M piprita. Methanol extract $(65.88%{\sim}77.59%)$ and water extract $(37.69%{\sim}87.21%)$ of M. viridis also exhibited more potent inhibitory activity on LDL oxidation than that of ${{\alpha}-tocopherol\;(28.37%{\sim}66.54%)}$ at ${1{\sim}100\;{\mu}g/ml}$ of final concentration. The total phenol contents of methanol extract and water extract of Mviridis (17.95% & 10.18%, respectively) as tannic acid equivalent were higher than those of M piperita (15.44% & 9.19%). But the yields of methanol and water extracts of M. viridis (13.3 % & 13.5%) were lower than those of M. piperita (14.1 % & 14.6%). The results implies that the extracts from M. viridis (spicata) is more useful material for industrialization as functional food than those from M. piperita.