Extraction and determination of cumin essential oil compounds by GC-MS and spectrophotometry and evaluation of antioxidant potential under different growth conditions

Evaluation of plant responses under different environmental conditions is a principal step towards a better understanding of their function and performance. In this investigation, cumin (Cuminum cyminum), which is known as an important medicinal plant, was examined under three different growing conditions including natural habitat, field and greenhouse conditions in order to clarify the effects of growing conditions on essential oil properties. Essential oil (EO) content was higher in natural habitat samples, but the composition of EO was varied along the three samples extracted from the above three conditions. Overall, 17 compounds were detected and the key component in all samples was thymol, with the highest amount of 18.03% in natural habitat samples. Cuminaldehyde, γ-terpinene, α-thujene and limonene were other substantial compounds of the EO. Some elements were not detected in all samples such as p-cymene which was not extracted from the EO of natural habitat sample and acetoxylinalool which was not observed in greenhouse sample analysis. Regards to phenol content, natural habitat samples showed the highest amount and the lowest value was obtained on field sample. Radical scavenging activity of EO was also higher in natural habitat samples and with respect to phenolic content analysis, it could be considered as a substantial advantage rather than the others. To sum up, results indicated some advantages of natural habitat samples, although field samples also showed superiority in some parameters.