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Review
. 2021 Feb 20;26(4):1118.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26041118.

The Wonderful Activities of the Genus Mentha: Not Only Antioxidant Properties

Majid Tafrihi  1 , Muhammad Imran  2 , Tabussam Tufail  2 , Tanweer Aslam Gondal  3 , Gianluca Caruso  4 , Somesh Sharma  5 , Ruchi Sharma  5 , Maria Atanassova  6 , Lyubomir Atanassov  7 , Patrick Valere Tsouh Fokou  8   9 , Raffaele Pezzani  10   11
Affiliations
Review

The Wonderful Activities of the Genus Mentha: Not Only Antioxidant Properties

Majid Tafrihi et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Medicinal plants and their derived compounds have drawn the attention of researchers due to their considerable impact on human health. Among medicinal plants, mint (Mentha species) exhibits multiple health beneficial properties, such as prevention from cancer development and anti-obesity, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and cardioprotective effects, as a result of its antioxidant potential, combined with low toxicity and high efficacy. Mentha species are widely used in savory dishes, food, beverages, and confectionary products. Phytochemicals derived from mint also showed anticancer activity against different types of human cancers such as cervix, lung, breast and many others. Mint essential oils show a great cytotoxicity potential, by modulating MAPK and PI3k/Akt pathways; they also induce apoptosis, suppress invasion and migration potential of cancer cells lines along with cell cycle arrest, upregulation of Bax and p53 genes, modulation of TNF, IL-6, IFN-γ, IL-8, and induction of senescence phenotype. Essential oils from mint have also been found to exert antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and many others. The current review highlights the antimicrobial role of mint-derived compounds and essential oils with a special emphasis on anticancer activities, clinical data and adverse effects displayed by such versatile plants.

Keywords: Mentha, phytochemicals; anticancer; antimicrobial; essential oils; mint.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of the main effects of Mentha species.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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