Mentha and Thymus are important genera of the Lamiaceae family widely distributed in the entire World and
commonly used in traditional medicine. Indeed, many species of the two genera have been credited with a large list of
health-benefit effects, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, analgesic, neuroprotective and anticarcinogenic.
In turn, these properties have been associated to the polyphenolic composition of the plants. The present review
summarizes the phenolic constituents found in Mentha and Thymus genera, as well as the main methods applied in their
extraction, purification and identification. Reported species of Mentha and Thymus usually comprise derivatives of caffeic
acid and distinct glycosidic forms of the flavonoids luteolin, apigenin, eriodictyol and naringenin. At present, the phenolic
composition of many relevant plants of Mentha and Thymus is still unknown and thus, more studies are required for the
adequate phenolic characterization of these two genera. In this context, the present implementation of faster and reliable
analytical methodologies, as e.g. the chromatographic techniques hyphenated with mass spectrometry, will surely be an
enormous tool in the upgrading of the missing information.
