[Bunium persicum[black caraway] of Yazd Province: chemical assessment and evaluation of its antioxidant effects]

Medicinal plants are valuable natural resources that are nowadays known as safe pre-materials for drug industries in the advanced countries. Black caraway is one of the most important and economical medicinal plants that can be grown naturally in some regions of Yazd province. The essence of the plant are used in treatment of diarrhea, dyspepsia, fever, flatulence, stomachache, hemorrhoids, hiccoughs, as an antihistaminic and more numerous uses in medicine industries. This plant shows several therapeutic effects on digestive and urinary tract disorders and is well known as an anti-convulsant, anthelmintic, anti-asthma and antidyspnic drug in Iranian traditional medicine. Bunium Persicum oil is capable of suppressing the initial stage of an inflammatory process. Also, this plant is used for culinary purposes and for flavoring foods and beverages. In this research, the fractionization of seed essence was done by GC method and the compounds were recognized. The DPPH test was used for estimating anti oxidant effects and the Follin-Ciocalteu method was used for estimating quantity of phenol compounds. The results revealed that- gammaTerpinene had the highest percentage in the essence of the native black caraway of Yazd province. Also, the antioxidant test showed the high antioxidant effect of the native black caraway of Yazd province with an IC50 of 2.85 microg.mg-1 and the phenolic component percentage of 117.09mg.g1. This result was much higher than previous similar studies about black caraway