The genus Mentha comprises several aromatic species, which are cultivated worldover due to their distinct aroma and commercial value. In addition to traditional food flavoring uses, Mentha are well recognized for their folk medicinal uses, especially to treat cold, fever, and digestive and cardiovascular disorders. A number of biological activities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, biopesticidal, antitumor, anticancer, antiviral, antiallergic, antiinflammatory, antihypertensive, and urease inhibitory activity have been ascribed to Mentha. The traditional pharmacological attributes of Mentha herbs can be linked to the occurrence of bioactive phytochemicals such as terpenoids, alcohols, rosmarinic acid, and antioxidant phenolics among others. A rich source of bioactives, different species of Mentha, can be explored as a promising candidate for the development of nutra-pharmaceuticals. This review covers the nutritional, phytochemical, and traditional medicinal aspects and multiple biological activities of some commonly available species of Mentha so as to explore their potential applications for nutra-pharmaceutical and cosmo-nutraceutical industry. Detailed chemical profile and pharmaceutical attributes of various Mentha essential oils are also covered. Moreover, based on computational analysis, quantitative chemical component-antioxidant activity relationship model is reviewed to predict and correlate structure-activity relationship of potential bioactives in selected Mentha essential oils leading to discovery and developmenmt of novel natural drugs.

Preparation, characterization, and optical properties of layered sulfur nanosheets (S-NSs) from natural sublimed sulfur were reported in this work. Few-layered S-NSs were prepared by a developed liquid-phase method including three steps: (1) forming sulfur quantum dots from natural sublimed sulfur; (2) forming multilayered nanosheets by assembling sulfur quantum dots through the hydrothermal method; and (3) sonication exfoliation of the multilayered S-NSs. The thinnest S-NSs (sulfurene) with a 0.84 nm thickness were obtained by the developed method. The obtained S-NSs showed wide-range absorption from ultraviolet to the visible region, multiwavelength photoluminescence, and superb water dispersibility and stability over two months in air. A reduction current peak was observed at −1.2 V (vs Ag/AgCl, Sat. KCl) on a fluorine-doped tin oxide electrode in 0.010 M HCl containing S-NSs, which is attributed to the reduction from S0 to S2– of the S-NSs. These alternative two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets of S-NSs with good stability and water dispersibility will provide opportunities for the research fields of visible-light-active photocatalysis and optical sensing.

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