Abstract: Salinity is a limiting factor in agricultural production.The objectives of this research were to assess the effect of salt treatment on the development as well as genomic DNA methylation levels and patterns of Menthae spicatae L. When Menthae spicatae L were treated by salt for 20 days, the chlorophyll content were significantly reduced, whereas the MDA and Pro content increased as the concentration of salt increased. AFLP technique did not detect any sequence change, and it means salt have minimal or no mutagenicity in Menthae spicatae L. MSAP technique showed that the ratio of DNA methylation was reduced at concentrations of 50 mmol/L salt and increased at the concentrations of 100 and 150mmol/L salt; the ratio of methylation and demethylation of Menthae spicatae L genomic DNA at salt concentrations of 50, 100, and 150mmol/L was 4.35%、9.93%、12.46% and 12.73%、13.12%、20.54%. Key words: Menthae spicatae L, DNA methylation, salt