Hydrodistillation of Nigella Sativa Seed and Analysis of Thymoquinone with HPLC and GC-MS

Abstract

N. sativa seeds, commonly known as black seeds, are for headaches in traditional medicine by many Asian, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries. It is used to treat cough, abdominal pain, diarrhea, asthma, rheumatism and other diseases. The seeds contain both fixed and essential oils, proteins, alkaloids and saponin. Much of the biological activity of the seeds has been shown to be due to thymoquinone, the major component of the essential oil, but which is also present in the fixed oil. The essential oil of black cumin seeds, Nigella sativa L., was tested for a possible antioxidant activity. In this study, we measured the amount of thymoquinone compound in distilled water taken from aromatic water. The proportion of thymoquinone passing into the aromatic water show that it is necessary to consume the correct amount of water and essential oil, which is significantly measurable by GC MS and HPLC. Thymoquinone was dedected 790 ppm in aromatic water and 45.78% in essential oil. Sufficient analytical work was performed with this method and the results were shown.