THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE FIXED AND VOLATILE OILS OF NIGELLA SATIVA L. AND ITS PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES

*Essam F. Al-Jumaily and Anwar Jalil Shihab Al-Jumaily.

ABSTRACT

Nigella sativa name as black seed or Kalonji seed belongs to family of rananculacea. It is widely grown in different part of world in Europe, Middle East, and Western Asia, Phytochemically; it contains fixed oil, essential oil, protein and alkaloids saponin. The chemical composition of the extracted fixed oil (total fatty acid composition) and volatile oil of Nigella sativa L. seeds were determined by GC. The compounds Thymoquinone was found in aqueous extract 5.53 % and 0.33 % in chloroform extract and very small amount in n-hexane. There are many fatty acids found in fixed oil of Nigella sativa and the major compounds were stearic acid (28.59%) and palmitic (7.3%) and linoleic (6.27%).and oleic acid (2.75%). Various physical constants of fixed oil like refractive index, specific gravity and viscosity were also determined.

Keywords: Nigella sativa L., Fixed Oil, Volatile Oil Composition, physico-chemical properties