Purpose: To analyze the composition of essential oils of two types of mint as well as compare the antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of the two oils. Methods: Peppermint (M. piperita L.) and chocolate mint (M. piperita L.) oils were obtained by steam distillation in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The chemical composition of the essential oils was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the essential oils were determined by broth dilution method. The antioxidant activities of the oils were determined by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)DPPH (0.15, 0.08, 0.92 %v/v, respectively) was stronger than that of chocolate mint (0.23, 0.09, 1.22 %v/v, respectively). In the anti-oxidant test including DPPH and β-Carotenelinoleic acid assays, peppermint oil showed superior antioxidant properties to chocolate mint oil (4.45 -19.86 μl/mL). However, with regard to scavenging NO radical activity, chocolate mint oil exhibited higher activity than peppermint (0.31 and 0.42 μl/mL, respectively). Chocolate mint oil also exhibited higher anti-inflammatory activity than peppermint oil (0.03 and 0.08 μl/mL, respectively). Conclusion:The results obtained should help to clarify the functional applications of these folk herbs and their essential oils for aromatherapeutic healing and other folkloric uses.

Given the high pressures of life in modern society, promoting relaxation can improve the quality of daily life. This study proposes a relaxation system that uses monaural beats with ultralowfrequency inaudible sounds to promote relaxation. To effectively promote relaxation, monaural beats in the δ band, θ band, and α band were used and evaluated. To avoid directly influencing people's activities, the frequencies of the stimulation sounds, which were used to generate the target beats, were out of the frequency range of people's hearing sense. To examine the performance of the proposed approaches, a subjective testing procedure was designed, and paired-sample t tests were performed. The p values for the experimental relaxation results with monaural beats in the δ band, θ band, and α band were 0.0001, 0.1195, and 0.0065, respectively. Furthermore, the experimental results revealed specific effects of the proposed relaxation system; for example, the δ band had the greatest effect regardless of whether the average, variance, or p value was assessed. On the basis of our experimental results, the proposed relaxation system model can help promote relaxation.INDEX TERMS Audio, brain waves, binaural beats, monaural beats, relaxation, resonance.

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