Food Applications of Nigella sativa Essential Oil

Nigella sativa oil (NSO), extracted from seeds of Nigella sativa, is widely used in traditional medicine and foodstuffs around the world because oil is rich in a variety of phytochemicals. Nigella sativa essential oil (NSEO) is regarded as a promising trend to get more functional benefits from NSO, which can be obtained by distillation methods. Thymoquinone, thymohydroquinone, p-cymene, carvacrol and t-anethole are the main components of NSEO. These active compounds, especially thymoquinone, showed antioxidants, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities with low toxicity, which have been considered a useful source of food applications. NSEO are, nowadays, still used in food in limited forms due to their low water solubility, high volatility and strong organoleptic properties. However, encapsulation technology could tackle these challenges. Thus, the ambition of this chapter is to provide an overview of NSEO and its advantageous properties usage on the food applications. Furthermore, the biological activities of NSEO and encapsulated NSEO in addition to its technological and potential utilization in food will be presented.