We have previously showed that commercial LED lights accelerate the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) especially blue light, this was also associated with oxidative damages and biological changes in living organisms. In this study, sweet mint seedlings (<i>Mentha spicata</i>) of the family Lamiaceae were exposed to different types of LED lights including blue, red, yellow and green and using natural sun light as the control. The exposure was carried out at 12 hours cycles (light/dark) for three days followed by another three days of exposure only to regular sunlight for recovery. These cycles were repeated for one month, then all plants were kept growing for an additional month under natural light. Samples of leaves for each treatment cycle were analyzed for their essential oil composition using headspace GCMS analysis. Control treatment showed that the main components of the essential oils were carvone (67 %), limonene (25%) and other minor terpenes (8%). Plants exposed to green and red lights showed that their headspace essential oils were identical to control plants essential oil composition. However, blue and yellow LED lights caused complete disappearance of carvone, which was never recovered. Furthermore, limonene was not affected by the exposure and retained its relative concentration. Apparently, disappearance of carvone was associated with the appearance of new chemical at concentrations of (68% and 33 % for blue and yellow lights respectively) which was identified as piperitenone oxide. These findings extend our previously published work on formation of ROS upon exposure to LED light and the biological changes that result by this exposure.

Exposure of mint plants to light emitted diode (LED) lights and their impact on essential oil composition

255th National Meeting (2018)

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