Genetic diversity in fatty acid composition and antioxidant capacity of Nigella sativa L. genotypes

Nigella Plants – Traditional Uses, Bioactive Phytoconstituents, Preclinical and Clinical Studies

“…The major compounds were similar to those found in N. sativa seeds from other Mediterranean countries. These fatty acids were also reported as major compounds from the seed oils, extracted by n -hexane, of different N. sativa genotypes from India ( Saxena et al, 2017 ). Other study have shown that fixed oils from N. sativa seed from Turkey and Egypt obtained by supercritical CO 2 extraction were similar in fatty acid composition of saturated fatty acids (16%), mainly constituted by palmitic acid (4) and stearic acid (5); monounsaturated acids (23%), mainly oleic acid and cis -vaccenic acid (6), and polyunsaturated acids (58%), mainly linoleic acid (1) and eicosadienoic acid (7) ( Piras et al, 2013 ) ( Figure 1 ).…”

“…The plants are mainly consumed for their seeds and seed oil, as commented before. The main constituents of N. sativa seeds reported in the literature are fixed oil (27–40%), proteins (16–19%), characterized mainly by the amino acids arginine, glutamic acid, leucine, lysine; minerals (1.79–3.74%), like Cu, Zn, P, and Fe; carbohydrates (28.5–33.7%), and solubre dietary fibers (5.5–8.9%) ( Al-Naqeep et al, 2009 ; Tiruppur Venkatachallam et al, 2010 ; Kooti et al, 2016 ; El-Naggar et al, 2017 ; Saxena et al, 2017 ). Concerning the phytochemical composition of Nigella seeds, the most interesting plant part, it is constituted of alkaloids, terpenes and phenolic compounds ( Agradi et al, 2001 ).…”

“…The oil of N. sativa seeds has been highly studied, showing predominance of linoleic acid (1) (50–60%), oleic acid (2) (20%), myristic acid (3) (30%), and palmitic acid (4) (12.5%) ( Tiruppur Venkatachallam et al, 2010 ; Kooti et al, 2016 ; El-Naggar et al, 2017 ; Saxena et al, 2017 ) ( Figure 1 ). Nigella seed oil from Morocco also showed that the major fatty acids were linoleic acid (1) (58.5 and 56.5%), oleic acid (2) (23.8 and 24.9%) and palmitic acid (4) (13.1 and 11.9%) using cold press and solvent extraction, respectively ( Gharby et al, 2015 ).…”

“…These compounds are considered Nigella active principles ( Mahmoudvand et al, 2014 ), but the composition may vary depending on the chemotype and species, among other factors ( Edris, 2010 ; Zribi et al, 2014 ; Koshak et al, 2017 ; Saxena et al, 2017 ). As an example, N. sativa volatile composition (seeds) presents different chemotypes ( Burits and Bucar, 2000 ; Islam et al, 2004 ): thymoquinone (8) chemotype in Egypt and Turkey varieties (77.2–86.2%) ( Piras et al, 2013 ); trans -anethole (14) (38.3%) chemotype in Iranian N. sativa essential oil ( Nickavar et al, 2003 ); p -cymene (9) (33%), and thymol (13) (26.8%) chemotype in Moroccan species ( Moretti et al, 2004 ).…”

Effect of microwave radiation on the antioxidant activity of black cumin seed [pdf]

“…Ali et al (2016) stated that antioxidant activity increased with increasing roasting time and extract concentration of groundnut seeds. To date, extensive studies have been conducted on the physico-chemical and antioxidant properties of black cumin seeds without applying any microwave radiation (Kadam et al, 2018;Saxena et al, 2017;Soleimanifar et al, 2019). To the best of our knowledge, no or few studies have been reported on the effect of microwave pretreatment on antioxidative activity of the black cumin seeds, which are the main objective of the present study.…”