فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Zinc plays an important role in many structural and biochemical functions in plants. However, excess amount of this element as heavy metal is one of the limiting factors for plants. Spearmints were grown in green house at nutrient solution containing different concentration of zinc until the flowering stage. The essential oils from fresh spearmint samples were isolated by water distillation (Clevenger) and analyzed by gas chromatograph-mass spectrophotometer (GC-Mass). In this research, results indicated that, monoterpenes were major parts of essential oils in M. spicata and low percent of these compounds were sesquiterpenes. In comparative investigation, content of oxygenate monoterpenes decreased with employing zinc in nutrient solution but, hydrocarbonate monoterpene contents of essence were increased. Total monoterpene contents of essence increased significantly by zinc treatment. However, with increasing Zn concentration, sesquiterpene contents such as hydocarbonates and oxygenates reduced gradually. It was concluded that, total oxygenate monoterpenes were more affected by Zn treatment and its reduction was remarkable. This could be due to bioenergetical changes in plant cells in response to heavy metal stress.