Variation of Pulegone Content in Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegiumL.) Plants Growing Wild in Greece

The study of the essential oils obtained from 10 wild Mentha pulegium L. populations scattered all over Greece has shown that the content of pulegone varies greatly, ranging from <0.1–90.7% of tin total oil. Only two populations have oils rich in pulegone (42.9% and 90.7%), whereas the rest have a low pulegone content (up to 35.6%). The latter are rich either in menthone/isomenthone or in piperitone/piperitenone or in piperitone (up to 97.2% of the total oil).