World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

EXTRACTION, PHYTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION, AND BIOACTIVE POTENTIAL OF ESSENTIAL OILS FROM CLOVE, CARDAMOM, AND NIGELLA SATIVA

Dr. Salama Bashirun Mulla*

ABSTRACT

This study describes the extraction of essential oils from clove (Syzygium aromaticum), green cardamom (Elettariacardamomum), and Nigella sativa seeds using Clevenger-type hydrodistillation, followed by physicochemical and chromatographic characterization. Plant materials were botanically authenticated, cleaned, shade-dried, pulverized, and hydro-distilled (100 g sample with 1 L distilled water for 3 h), following established extraction principles (Azwanida, 2015). The resulting oils were dried using anhydrous Na?SO? and stored at 4°C to preserve volatile integrity (Guenther, 1952). Preliminary qualitative assays—including solubility, ferric chloride, vanillin–sulfuric acid, potassium permanganate, and Dragendorff’s tests—were conducted to assess key phytochemical groups consistent with essential oil composition (Bakkali et al., 2008). Definitive compound identification was performed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) with spectral library matching (Adams, 2007). The GC–MS fingerprints confirmed the expected chemotypes: a phenylpropanoid-dominant profile in clove, mainly eugenol and related compounds (Chaieb et al., 2007); a monoterpene- and oxygenated monoterpene-rich profile in cardamom, with notable constituents such as 1,8- cineole and α-terpinyl acetate (Singh et al., 2020; Mahmoud et al., 2022); and a quinone/monoterpene profile in N. sativa, dominated by thymoquinone derivatives (Ahmad et al., 2013; Ali et al., 2015). The combined hydrodistillation and GC–MS methodology generated robust and reproducible chemical fingerprints, aligning with published phytochemical standards and supporting further applications in pharmacological evaluation, authenticity testing, and quality control of medicinal plant essential oils.

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