| The
essential oils extracted from the mint species
Mentha pulegium and Mentha spicata, together with their
main constituents, pulegone, mint carvone,
were tested for insecticidal and genotoxic activities
on Drosophila melanogaster. The essential oils of both
aromatic plants showed strong insecticidal activity.
The most effective insecticide was found to be pulegone,
while the most effective for genotoxic activity was
menthone. Data show that both toxic and genotoxic activities
of the essential oils of the two studied mint plants
are not in accordance with those of their main constituents,
pulegone, menthone, and carvone. Pulegone is significantly
more effective (9 times) as an insecticide, while menthone
and carvone are less effective (6 and 2 times, respectively)
insecticides when used in their authentic forms, and
a mixture of authentic pulegone and menthone, in levels
resembling their content in the oil of M. pulegium,
showed that the strong toxicity of pulegone is suppressed
in the presence of menthone. All the above suggest that
synergistic/antagonistic phenomena may be involved that
alter the toxicity of the whole essential oils.
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