الفهرس 
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Abstract
Mentha (mint) plants are widely distributed herbaceous and perennial aromatic plant belongs to the Labiates (Lamiaceae) family. Mints are characterized by great morphological and chemical variations, which reflected in the high number of different taxonomic rank names. The main goal of this study was to extend our understanding of the chemical composition and molecular genetics of different identified genotypes and ecotypes of Mentha plants grown on Egypt using chymosystimatic, RAPD and ISSR markers. Five Mentha species [Mentha piperita, M. longifolia, M. suaveolens (apple mint), M. piperita (cv. Chocolate mint) and M. pulegium] and five Ecotypes (M. spicata ”Sohag”, M. spicata ”Behari”, M. spicata ”Aswan” , M. spicata ”Bani Suwayf” and M. spicata ”El-Minia” ) were used in the present study. Results showed that, M. spicata ecotype ”Sohag” had the highest plant dry weight at the three cuts. At the first cut there was no significant difference among the Behari, Aswan, Bani Suwayf and El-Mania ecotypes on their dry weights. Interestingly, the dry weight of the Sohag and Bani Suwayf ecotype plants exceeded that of the local ecotype at the third cut by 166% and 148% respectively. The plant biomass showed significant variations among the investigated Mentha species and ecotypes after adaptation to new conditions. Interestingly, the ecotype M. spicata Sohag had higher biomass (about two fold) than the local ecotype M. spicata El-Minia. The essential oils content of the Mentha species and ecotypes were significantly varied between 1.33% for M. longifolia and 0.47% for M. spicata ecotype Aswan. The GC–MS analysis of the essential oils compositions showed that the percentage of identified components was ranged between 100% (Aswan ecotype) and 89.42% (M. pulegium). All of the studied primers were polymorphic conferring a 100% of polymorphism. The dendrogram showed two main groups, the first clustering was consisted of M. longifolia. The second group was separated into two sub-clusters, one of them included the five ecotypes (M. spicata ”Sohag”, M. spicata ”Behari”, M. spicata ”Aswan”, M. spicata ”Bani Suwayf”, M. spicata ”El-Minia”) in addition to M. pulegium species. Mentha piperita and M. piperita (cv. Chocolate mint) formed the second sub-cluster.