Aim and Background: Mentha longifolia with the generic name "Wild Mint, is one of the oldest medicinal plants which have been widely used in Iranian food and medicine. This study was performed to extract the essential oil of Mentha longifolia and analysis of its components and also antioxidant and antibacterial properties of its oil and non-polar compounds, extracted by n-hexan.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the essential oil of M. longifolia was extracted using SDE technique for the first time. The obtained essential oil was analyzed using GC-Mass and its components are identified. Antioxidant activity of the oily compounds was measured via DPPH free radical scavenging activity; while, antibacterial effects were evaluated using disc diffusion method by measuring inhibition zone diameter evaluating n-hexane extract.

Results: The major components of the oil are d-carvone (57.2%) and limonene (15.7%). Some of the essential oil components, identified in this study, are not similar to those mentioned in the previous reports. The results indicate that despite non-polar nature of extract solvent, n-hexane extract has a noticeable inhibitory power on DPPH free radical. Also, it shows very high antimicrobial properties on gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, which are comparable with standard antibiotics.

Conclusions: This study shows that components extracted by hexane as solvent, despite oily nature of compounds with low polarity, have antioxidant activity and also significant anti-microbial potential which have not been reported for M. longifolia in the literature.