Bioactivities of black cumin essential oil and its main terpenes from Tunisia

Ex vivo antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antibacterial activities of the essential oil from Tunisian Nigella saliva seeds and its main terpenes (p-cymene, gamma-terpinene, thymoquinone, beta-pinene, carvacrol, terpinen-4-ol and longifolene) were determined. The essential oil exhibited strong ex vivo antioxidant activity, inhibiting DCFH oxidation with an IC50 of 1.0 mu g/ml, and high anti-inflammatory activity, inhibiting NO radical excretion with an IC50 value of 6.3 mu g/ml. Thymoquinone was found to be the most active to decrease DCFH oxidation and NO excretion. The oil was found to significantly inhibit the growth of A-549 and DLD-1 cancer cell lines (IC50 values of 43.0 and 46.0 mu g/ml, respectively) and to exert antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli with IC50 values of 12.0 and 62.0 mu g/ml. The anticancer and antibacterial activities could be mainly due to the action of thymoquinone and longifolene. (C) 2009 SAAB. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.