Year: 2023 | Month: December | Volume 16 | Issue 4
Improving the Efficiency of Extracting Nigella sativa Oil through Pretreatment: Effects on Yield and Active Constituents
Syed Mazhar Ali and Santosh
D.T.
DOI:10.30954/0974-1712.04.2023.5
Abstract:
The plant known as black seed, or Nigella sativa, is well-known for its small, jet-black seeds, which are
bursting with health benefits. Because of the oil’s potent therapeutic properties, there has been a lot of
interest in its extraction from these seeds. The effectiveness of steam and microwave pretreatments on
Nigella sativa seed oil extraction is examined in this study, along with their impact on oil yield and active
ingredients. Two extraction techniques, hydrodistillation and supercritical fluid extraction, are used to
investigate the effects of different pretreatment times on seed samples. The results show that utilizing
hydrodistillation, microwave pretreatment for three minutes (HM3) produces the maximum oil extraction
(0.892%), outperforming untreated samples (H0) at 0.436%. In the same direction, samples that have been
microwave-pretreated for three minutes (HS3) in supercritical fluid extraction show the highest yield
(9.44%) when compared to their untreated counterpart (SO), which shows a yield of 4.10%. Microwavetreated
samples exhibit a more noticeable increase in oil yield, even if steam pretreatment also improves
it. Furthermore, H0 has a 19.40% Thymoquinone level, which is crucial for the active ingredients in the
oil, but pretreatment HM3 samples have an increased 26.73% Thymoquinone content. On the other hand,
the Thymoquinone content in supercritical fluid-extracted S0 is 8.35%, while pretreatment SM3 samples
show 11.53%. Thymoquinone content lags despite supercritical fluid extraction’s greater yield; this could
be because the technique has a lower operating pressure (70 atm). The results of this study highlight
how pretreatment techniques can increase oil yield without lowering oil quality or antioxidant activity.
Prospective enhancements in process parameters, namely in the operating pressure of supercritical
fluid extraction, could potentially augment Thymoquinone content and augment oil yield. The results
validate the feasibility of pretreatments in maximizing the extraction efficiency of Nigella sativa oil while
preserving its antioxidant qualities and oil quality.
© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Highlights
- Balancing oil yield and quality through pretreatment techniques.
- Effect of microwave pretreatment on Nigella sativa oil extraction efficiency.
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