Author(s): Ehssan HJ Ahmed, Ragaa SM Abadi and Abdelhafeez MA Mohammed

Abstract: In this research, the Coriandrum sativum L. seeds were extracted using petroleum ether, n-hexane, ethanol, methanol and aqueous solvents through maceration or soxhlet extraction method. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the polar extracts of ethanol, methanol and aqueous of C. sativum seeds revealed the presence of saponins, tannins and cardenolides in all three extracts and the absence of triterpenes, anthraquinones and leucoanthocynins in all three extracts. The essential oil of the seeds of Coriandrum sativum was extracted using steam distillation and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). It contained forty nine compounds including linalool (66.7%) as a major constituent. The other important components identified were; γ-terpinene (4.45%), decanal (4.44%), geranyl acetate (2.14%), a-pinene (1.04%) and limonene (0.86%). The antioxidant activity using DPPH radical-scavenging method was applied for essential oil of C. sativum seeds. Our results showed that the oil of C. sativum has an effective antioxidant activity.