Predictive association of quality components with reference to congealing point of the essential oil in Japanese mint (Mentha arvensisL.)

Associations of five major essential oil quality components were examined and their functional relationships, both individual and combined, in determining the congealing point (CP) were formulated for 149 hybrid clones of Japanese mint (Menth arvensis L.). Only the major component menthol exhibited a significantly positive association with CP whereas the other four major components (menthone, isomenthone, menthyl acetate and pulegone) as well as the pooled background were negatively associated with it. Pulegone provided the strongest negative association with CP and its association with all other components were also negative. Three joint regression models, based on different character combinations, accounted for about 83% each of the variation in CP. The model with the optimum number of component characters associated with best fit was recommended after statistical validity tests.