Mentha pulegium is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae native to Europe, North Africa and the
Middle East. Crushed pennyroyal leaves exhibit a very strong fragrance similar to spearmint. A large number of
the recipes in the Roman cookbook of Apicius call for the use of pennyroyal, often along with such herbs as
lovage, oregano and coriander. Pennyroyal is used to make herbal teas, which, although not proven to be
dangerous to healthy adults in small doses, is not recommended, due to its known toxicity to the liver.
Consumption can be fatal to infants and children. Pennyroyal leaves, both fresh and dried, are especially noted
for repelling insects. Pennyroyal essential oil should never be taken internally because it is highly toxic; even in
small doses, consumption of the oil can result in death. Antioxidative activities of the essential oil, methanol and
water extracts of Iranian pennyroyal in vegetable oil during storage were evaluated. The TLC chromatogram of
the two extracts showed differences in the number of separated compounds of extracts. HPLC results indicated
that the fraction collected with washing buffer (pH = 6) had highest antioxidant activity.