Studies on the Essential Oils of the Genus Mentha

Part VI. On the Components of the Essential Oils of Mentha japonica Makino

Abstract

The essential oil of Mentha japonica Makino (Japanese name, Himehakka) was found to consist mainly from l-menthone (50.8%), d-isomenthone (18.6%) and d-pulegone (12.6%) besides smaller amounts of α-pinene (0.4%), β-pinene (0.3%), limonene (0.3%), 3-octanone (3.6%), 1, 8-cineole (0.8%), p-cymene (0.1%) 3-octyl acetate (0.8%), 3-octanol and a ketone (1.9%), 3-methylcyclohexanone (0.1%), l-octen-3-ol (0.9%), menthyl acetate (1.8%), l-isopulegone (0.6%), menthol (0.4%), piperitone (2.6%), trans-pulegone oxide (0.4%), iso-piperitenone (0.4%), cis-pulegone oxide (0.4%), piperitenone (0.2%) and other compounds.
Some considerations to the relationships among M. Pulegium, M. Gattefossei and M. japonica have been done from viewpoint of the chemical systematics.