Research On The Main Chemical Compositions And Essential Oil Bioactivities Of Xinjiang Cumin Seeds

Xinjiang is the main cumin producing area in our country, accounting for more than90%of the total planting area, Xinjiang cumin mainly distributed in the KashiPrefecture, Hotan Prefecture, Aksu Prefecture and Turpan Prefecture. Because of themarket demand and the planting structure adjustment, Xinjiang cumin’s planting areaand yield is expanding rapidly, and has become one of the important economic cropsin promoting the farmers’ income. Being rich in nutrients and active substance, cuminseeds have a good application status and prospect in the food, cosmetic, antiseptic,medical and health care products.In this paper, for improving comprehensive utilization of cumin which is thecharacteristic same plant source of medicine and food in Xinjiang Uygur autonomousregion, the main chemical compositions and essential oil bioactivity of Xinjiangcumin seeds were researched comprehensively and systematicly. First, the overallchemical composition, soluble sugar content, mineral elements content, proteincontent and amino acid content were determined comprehensively in cumin seedwhich was planted Akesu, Hotan, Yanqi, Kashi, Hami, Turpan. Second, flavonoids inbiological activity substances were extracted, the concent of flavonoids in cumin wasdetermined, and flavonoids were separated and purified by adsorption resin. Third,essential oil was extracted from cumin seeds which grew in different places, moreover,the extraction process was optimized by single factor experiment combined withorthogonal experiment. Fourth, Cumin essential oil was obtained by steam distillationmethod, and then, the composition and content of essential oils in cumin wereanalyzed. Fifth, antioxidant activities and antibacterial activities of cumin essentialoils were researched.The results were:(1) Analysis results showed that cumin seeds grew in differentplaces of XinJiang were rich in carbohydrate, fat, protein, amino acids and mineralelements which were of good edible and medicinal value;(2) Cumin seeds containedmany flavonoids, the highest content of flavonoids was5.04%of Turpan, the lowestwas3.97%of Akesu;(3) Optimization results showed that the conditions forextracting essential oil in cumin seeds were as follows: solvent was n-pentane,extraction temperature was30℃, extractiontime was7.5h, particle size of raw material was70hole, ratio of solvent to raw material was4.5:1, extraction times were4times. Under this condition, the two higher yield of the essential oil were6.86%and6.91%respectively with cumin seeds from Akesu and Hami, and the lowest was5.87%with cumin seeds from Turpan;(4) There were28kinds of chemicalconstituents identified in cumin essential oils which was extracted by steamdistillation method;(5) Antioxidant and antibacterial results showed that cuminessential oil had strong capacity to against the DPPH radical and bacteria.Our research results could provide data and technical support for deep processingand industrialization of Xinjiang cumin, there are also realistic significance inexploiting Xinjiang cumin industry chain and protecting the ecological environmentof the arid region.