Objective: 

Many plants and vegetables have been found to contain antimutagens so the antimutagenic and antioxidant potential of these plants can be determined by different approaches. Mentha pulegium is one of these plants. In the present work, methanolic extract of Mentha pulegium from Erzurum, Turkey, was used in order to report the results of anti-oxidant capacity, anti-oxidant activity and anti-genotoxic effects.

Methods: 

Total antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content were measured by using CUPRAC, ABTS and Folin–Ciocalteu colorimetric methods. Also, we evaluated the anti-oxidant enzyme activity such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase, total glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in human lymphocyte culture.In addition, anti-genotoxic effect of ME was studied by using sister chromatid exchange (SCE) method.

Results: 

The total phenolic content was higher than the total antioxidant capacity (for the results of both the CUPRAC and ABTS methods) of methanolic extract of M. pulegium (ME). In CCI4-treated group, the activity of SOD, glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and GSH decreased significantly and the level of MDA increased significantly. A significant increase in the activity of SOD, GPx and the level of GSH were seen when supplemented with ME to CCI4-treated group. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the level of MDA was observed when compared with CCI4 alone treated group. As a result, ME has shown anti-genotoxic effect depend on anti-oxidative effect on human lymphocyte culture.

Conclusions: 

The results of this study indicate that the extracts of the genus Mentha are favorable free radical scavengers as well as primary antioxidants that may react with free radicals and limit ROS attack on biological and food systems.