| Nigella sativa L. is an annual herb belongs to the Ranunculaceae
family. Its seed has black color so that it is called black seed or black cumin
seed. Black seed contains 34 - 39% oil. The oil can be extracted by different
methods including cold-pressing, hot pressing or solvent extraction. Black
seed oil is widely used in traditional medicine and nutritional purposes.The fixed oil consists of mainly triacylglycerols, and minor compounds
such as tocopherols, phytosterols and phenolic compounds. Linoleic acid
(50.3 – 49.2%) and oleic acid (25.0 – 23.7%) are known as the major
unsaturated fatty acids, while the main saturated fatty acid is palmitic acid
(17.2 – 18.4%) in the black seed oil. There are many reports on the seeds
and their oil pharmaceutical properties such as having anticancer,
antiradical, antidiabetic, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities.
Most of these activities have been due to thymoquinone (30 -48%). |