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Phytochemical profile of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) seed oil: identification of bioactive anti-pathogenic compounds for traditional Siddha formulation

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Abstract

Black cumin seed oil has been traditionally used as Karumjeerakam kuzhi thailam (Siddha formulation) in India more than 500 years ago. This study was conducted to find out the bioactive molecules present in black cumin seed oil. The oil was subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) techniques, and the obtained results were compared with the National Institute of Standard Library to identify the presence of chemical compounds. Based on GC–MS and LC–MS analyses, several bioactive compounds were detected such as octanoic acid (m/z 144.21), benzene, 1,3-bis (1,1-dimethyl ethyl) (m/z 190.32), maculosin (m/z 260.1), capric acid (m/z 172.26), 3-ketosphingoshine (m/z 297.3), hygrine (m/z 141.1), tetradecanoic acid, ethyl ester (m/z 256.42), and 2-monomyristin (m/z 302.4). Moreover, the oil was further evaluated for its anti-bacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and was found that it inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at a concentration of 10 µg/mL. Besides, molecular docking with capric and caprylic acid from the oil has shown a stable binding affinity with major quorum-sensing proteins. Laetisaric acid showed the best binding scores among the 11 compounds selected for the study with the corresponding receptors. These interactions could provide more insight into understanding the action of the identified compounds on various targets.

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Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge the SRM Management, Department of Biotechnology, School of Bioengineering for providing the instrumental facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, School of Bioengineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, –603203, Tamil Nadu, India

    Raman Pachaiappan, Krishnan Nagasathiya, Pinki Kumari Singh & Allwyn Vyas Gopalakrishnan

  2. Research and Development Wing, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital (SBMCH), Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research (BIHER), Chennai, –600044, Tamil Nadu, India

    Palaniyandi Velusamy & Palaniappan Ramasamy

  3. No. 5/61 F, Tagore Nagar, Ondipudur, Coimbatore, –641016, Tamil Nadu, India

    Kumarasamy Ramasamy

  4. Office of the Dean Sponsored Research, Publications and Collaborations,, AMET University, Kanathur - 603112, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Devadasan Velmurugan

  5. Kongana Vedic Science Academy and Herbal Research Trust, Kavalapatti, –624621, Palani, Tamil Nadu, India

    Rangasamy Kandasamy

  6. Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 02600, Arau, Malaysia

    Subash C. B. Gopinath

  7. Institute of Nano Electronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 01000, Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia

    Subash C. B. Gopinath

Authors
  1. Raman Pachaiappan
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  2. Krishnan Nagasathiya
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  3. Pinki Kumari Singh
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  6. Kumarasamy Ramasamy
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  8. Rangasamy Kandasamy
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  10. Subash C. B. Gopinath
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Contributions

Raman Pachaiappan: conceptualization, formal analysis, project administration, resources, supervision, investigation, funding acquisition, validation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—reviewing and editing. Krishnan Nagasathiya: data curation, methodology, visualization, validation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—reviewing and editing. Pinki Kumari Singh: resources, data curation, validation, visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. Allwyn Vyas Gopalakrishnan: resources, validation, visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. Palaniyandi Velusamy: data curation, validation, visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. Kumarasamy Ramasamy: validation, visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. Devadasan Velmurugan: validation, writing—reviewing and editing. Rangasamy Kandasamy: validation, writing—reviewing and editing. Palaniappan Ramasamy: visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. Subash C.B. Gopinath: visualization, writing—reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Pachaiappan, R., Nagasathiya, K., Singh, P.K. et al. Phytochemical profile of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) seed oil: identification of bioactive anti-pathogenic compounds for traditional Siddha formulation. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 14683–14695 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02951-x

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