Mentha suaveolens Ehrh. - syn.Mentha rotundifolia auct. - Lamiaceae \\
round-leaf mint, apple mint, **Rundblättrige Minze**, Apfelminze

Perennial herb, up to 80cm tall, native to Northern Africa, Europe, West Asia, naturalized and cultivated elsewhere; leaves sessile, circular to oblong-ovate, crenate or crenate-serrate; flowers in terminal, dense cylindric spikes, corolla white, purplish, bluish or purple, ca. 2.5mm, tube ca. 1.5mm. 

"The leaves of this plant can be used to make apple mint jelly, as well as a flavoring in dishes such as apple mint couscous. It is also often used to make a mint tea, as a garnish, or in salads... Pineapple mint (Mentha suaveolens 'Variegata') is a cultivar of apple mint that has leaves which are banded with white. A hybrid derived from it is grapefruit mint (Mentha suaveolens x piperata)." \\
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentha_suaveolens]]

|{{:piperitenoneoxide.jpg|}} \\ piperitenone oxide |{{:cis_piperitonoxid.jpg|}} \\ cis-piperitone oxide |

"The major constituent was [[http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?ID=C35178553|piperitenone oxide]] (80.8%), an oxigenated monoterpene which has been reported to characterise the volatile oil of some chemotypes of Mentha sp., such as M. spicata (Pino et al., 1998), M. longifolia (Venskutonis, 1996), M. x villosa (Abreu Matos et al., 1999) and M. rotundifolia (Nagell and Hefendehl, 1974). Previous studies on the essential oil of M. rotundifolia revealed the existence of chemotypes with different major components, as for example piperitone oxide (Kokkini and Papageorgiou, 1988; Hendriks and Van Os, 1976), menthyl acetate (Kokkini and Papageorgiou, 1988), dihydrocarvone (Hendriks and Van Os, 1976) and also piperitenone oxide (Nagell and Hefendehl, 1974), indicating that the Uruguayan population could be a representant of the chemotype reported for Nagell et al. (Nagell and Hefendehl, 1974)." \\
[Essential oils of Mentha pulegium and Mentha rotundifolia from Uruguay., Lorenzo, D., Paz, D., Dellacassa, E., Davies, P., Vila, R., Cañigueral, S., Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology, Vol.45(4), 2002, 519-524] \\
[[http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1516-89132002000600016&script=sci_arttext]]

The main constituents of two Algerian origin oils of M.rotundifolia were piperitenone oxide (23.5-38.6%) and cis-piperitone oxide (28.1-30.5%). \\
[Chemical composition of the leaf oil of Mentha rotundifolia (L.) from Algeria., Brada, M., Bezzina, M., Marlier, M., Lognay, G.C., Journal of Essential Oil Research, Vol.18(6), 2006, 663-665]

"Thirty two volatile constituents were identified in leaves oil of Mentha rotundifolia [from Morocco] and the main constituents of the essential oil, were menthol (40.50%), other predominant constituents were: menthone (5.0%), menthyl acetate (4.50%), menthofuran (4.20%), piperitone oxide (3.80%), linalyl acetate (3.50%), neomenthol (3.20%), piperitone (3.10%), isomenthone (2.50%), 1,8-cineole (2.40%), linalool (2.0%), limonene (1.80%), geraniol (1.70%), myrcene (1.60%), geranyl acetate (1.50%) and trans-sabinene hydrate (1.40%)." \\
[Comparative essential oil composition of leaves of Mentha rotundifolia and Mentha pulegium a traditional herbal medicine in Morocco., Derwich, E., Benziane, Z., Taouil, R., Senhaji, O., Touzani, M., American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Vol.4(1), 2010, 47-54] \\
[[http://www.aensiweb.com/old/aejsa/2010/47-54.pdf]]

{{:mantha_rotundifolia.jpg?600}} \\
Flora Danica [G.C. Oeder et al], f.43, t.2542 (1761-1883) \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=659517]]