干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Extraction of essential oil from Nigella sativa seed collected at two locations in the Sahara desert, Timimoun (T) and Adrar (A), has been conducted by hydrodistillation (HD) and a microwave distillation process (MD). The composition of the volatile oil was investigated by capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Using the hydrodistillation, active compounds such as p-cymene (8.9 and 7.2% in T and A, respectively), 4-terpineol (0.6-8.9%), thymohydroquinone (6.1-12.2%), thymoquinone (1.6-21.8%), carvacrol (12.9-12.9%), carvone (4.4-0.3%) and thymol (1.5-0.7%) were the major components, representing more than 36% (T) and 64% (A) of the oils. For the microwave distillation, p-cymene (28.1% and 32.0% in T and A, respectively), 4-terpineol (3.4-2.0%), thymohydroquinone (0.7-1.1%), thymoquinone (10.8-24.6%), carvacrol (3.0-6.0%), and thymol (0.3-0.3%) represent respectively 46.1% and 66.0% of the T and A oils. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.