Abstract

The current work was carried out to study the Nigella sativa which is a prominent native plant and is well known for its medicinal prominence for the treatment of many diseases. By using the standard methods the nutritional values of the seed and oil of Nigella sativa were determined. The contiguous investigation was done to find out moisture, ash, fat, fiber, protein, carbohydrates and energy. The moisture contents of seed (7.70%) had lesser moisture content then the cake (8.48%). Ash content of the seed was 3.52% and ash content of the cake was 3.57%. The value of seed ash content was nearly same as the ash content of cake. The fiber content of seed 5.86% and fiber content of cake is 6.70%. Nigella sativa is considered as best seeds reducing diabetes and cholesterol level in blood. The fat contents of seed and cake was 31.02% and 11.54%. The protein contents of the seed and cake were 19.78% and 17.35%. Total energy of seed and cake was 486.78 and 382.70; there was a significant difference between energy value of seed and cake. The Antioxidant activity of the fixed & essential oil was determined by using DPPH assay and reducing power activity which showed that the antioxidant activity of fixed oil (% Inhibition DPPH 72.27+2.5) was higher than the essential oil (% Inhibition DPPH 63.39+2.3) at 20μl concentration. In the light of the above consideration, the results of the study revealed that Nigella sativa showed promising antioxidant activity in a dose dependent manner in both assay. GC-MS analysis of both oil were also showed number of antioxidant compounds.

Keywords: Nigella sativa seed/cake/oil; Nutritional facts; DPPH assay; Reducing power assay; GC-MS