Effects of phosphate fertilization and seasonal variations on japanese mint

The requirement of mint oil and menthol in India has been estimated to be around 100 tons a year which is increasing consistently year after year (47). Till recently, almost all the quantity of mint oil and menthol in this country was imported. At present, a portion of it is being met by indigenous production and Japanese mint is credited to be the sole source for that. It may, however, be mentioned that Japanese mint was introduced in India in early fifties from Japan through the good offices of UNESCO (25). This plant has found the new habitat quite suitable making possible its successful cultivation in the variousp arts of the country on commercial scale (7, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 29, 32, 34, 35, 41, 45, 46). Its oil which is equally comparable to Japanese and Drazillinn grown mint oil contains more than 70 per cent of menthol, 25–30 per cent of which can easily be isolated on cooling (25, 37).