Eight Mentha spicata accessions collected from China were characterized by both molecular and volatile analysis. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) evaluation was performed to analyze the DNA polymorphism of the accessions. Essential oil from leaf was also detected by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The major components of the accessions are limonene (1.4 to 11.1%) and carvone contents (55.4 to 74.6%) for samples M. spicata1, M. spicata4, M. spicata5, M. spicata6 and M. spicata8, while other components are 1, 8-cineole (0.5 to 23.6%) and piperitenone oxide (30.8 to 38.5%) for samples M. spicata2 and M. spicata3, and cis- Sabinene hydrate (15%), menthol (16%) and pulegone (35.9%) for M. spicata7. Both AFLP and leaf volatile analysis were used to group the samples into two main groups, and similar dendrograms were obtained. However, the results shown in this study can be further applied in mint breeding.Key words: Mentha spicata, essential oil, chemical diversity, AFLP, molecular diversity.
