CLONAL BREEDING OF PEPPERMINT (MENTHA × PIPERITA) WITH HIGH CONTENT OF MENTHOL

The genus Mentha is one of the most important genera of the family Lamiaceae. Pepermint (Mentha × piperita) is one of the most used and cultivated species of this genus. There are more chemotypes in this species. These chemotypes are characteristics of different composition of the constituents in essential oil. Work in the clonal breeding on peppermint is focused on high menthol content in essential oil. In the growth stage before flowering in new cultivar, 2.6% content of essential oil was found. The biologically active substances have dominant presence of menthol at 72-74% (GC-FID) and 73-75% (GC-MS), respectively. At more quantities, menthone 12-16% was determined. Control cultivar of ‘Perpeta’ had 1.8% essential oil content. In this cultivar, the major substance in essential oil is mentone at 30-42% (GC-MS, GC-FID). Amount of menthol obtained was 30-34%.