article · International Journal of Plant Biology
This research evaluates how the quality of irrigation water influences the chemical profile and secondary metabolites of peppermint essential oil, or Mentha piperita. Mentha piperita plants grown in the Oriental region of Morocco were cultivated using three different standard irrigation water sources, each assessed for properties including pH, electrical conductivity, nutrient levels, and oxygen demand. Chemical analysis of the extracted oils revealed notable differences in composition depending on the water supplied. Computational modelling examined the drug-likeness, pharmacokinetic behaviour, safety upon ingestion, and pharmacological activity of the identified chemical compounds. Laboratory evaluations demonstrated that the resulting essential oils possessed antioxidant activity and exerted moderate to strong antimicrobial effects against four bacterial strains and four fungal strains. The findings indicate that managing irrigation water quality can enhance the production of specific valuable metabolites.
Agricultural inputs directly influence the chemical characteristics and therapeutic value of medicinal plants. By confirming that irrigation water quality alters the active constituents in peppermint essential oil, this work shows that growers could deliberately manage water sources to optimise natural antimicrobial and antioxidant outputs. This helps align farming conditions with the consistency and quality standards required for plant-derived health and industrial ingredients.
This work represents early-stage laboratory and computational research relevant to agricultural producers, extract processors, and developers of natural antimicrobial or antioxidant products. Regulating irrigation water could allow producers to cultivate crops with tailored chemical profiles for pharmaceutical or cosmetic applications. However, as the findings rely on in vitro testing and predictive models, substantial agronomic standardisation, formulation studies, and in vivo safety trials are required before commercial deployment.
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This study examines the impact of irrigation water quality on the synthesis of secondary metabolites and the chemical composition of Mentha piperita essential oil (MPEO). Three essential oils from Mentha piperita plants, irrigated with different water sources commonly used for mint irrigation in Morocco’s Oriental region, were analyzed. The water sources were characterized based on various parameters, such as nitrites, nitrates, orthophosphates, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), pH, and electrical conductivity. The essential oils were extracted using hydrodistillation, and their chemical composition was determined using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS), revealing notable variations among the compositions of the three essential oils. In this study, in silico tests using the Prediction of Activity Spectra for Substances (PASS) algorithm; the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) model; and Pro-Tox II were conducted to evaluate the drug-likeness, pharmacokinetic properties, expected safety profile upon ingestion, and potential pharmacological activity of the identified compounds in MPEO. The antioxidant activity of the MPEOs was assessed through a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and the total antioxidant activity (TAC) method. Additionally, the antimicrobial effectiveness of the essential oils was tested against four bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and four fungal strains (Candida glabrata, Rhodotorula glutinis, Penicillium digitatum, Aspergillus niger), demonstrating moderate to strong activities against the tested strains. This study concludes that regulating irrigation water quality can enhance the production of specific metabolites, making them potentially valuable as antioxidants and antimicrobial agents.
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DOI: 10.3390/ijpb14030049
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