Original article Composition, quality control and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) seeds from Bulgaria that had been stored for up to 36 years Leopold Jirovetz, 1 * Gerhard Buchbauer, 1 Albena S. Stoyanova, 2 Evgenii V. Georgiev 2 & Stanka T. Damianova 3 1 University of Vienna, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria 2 Department of Essential Oils, University of Food Technology, 26 Martiza Boulevard, 4002 Plovdiv, Bulgaria 3 Technology college, University of Rousse, Technology College, 7200 Razgrad, Bulgaria (Received 30 December 2002; Accepted in revised form 13 August 2004) Summary The essential oil of seeds of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) from Bulgaria stored for more than 35 years was analyzed by physicochemical methods, GC, GC-MS and olfactometry and its antimicrobial activity tested using different strains of microorganisms. More than sixty constituents of this cumin oil could be identified as essential volatiles, responsible for the pleasant fresh, clean, spicy (typical cumin-like) odour of a high quality product. Cumin aldehyde (36%), b-pinene (19.3%), p-cymene (18.4%) and c-terpinene (15.3%) were the principal compounds found. Antimicrobial testing showed high activity of the essential C. cyminum oil against the mold Aspergillus niger, the Gram (+) bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus epidermidis as well as the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans. Keywords Antimicrobial testings, aroma compounds, quality control, stored seeds. Introduction The seeds of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L., syn. Luerssenia cyminum, Ligusticum cuminum, Seli- num cuminum, Kuminum odoratum, Cymilon lon- geivolucellatum, Apiaceae) have been well-known since ancient times as a spice [Finnemore, 1926; Gildemeister & Hoffmann, 1961; Furia & Bellanca, 1975b; Mabey, 1989; Siewek, 1990; Norman, 1990; Boelens Aroma Compounds Information System (BACIS), 2000] and medi- cine (Husain et al., 1988; Hiller, 1999; Frohne, 2002). The composition of the essential oil of C. cyminum depends on many factors, such as plant part, harvest-time, extraction-method, type of cultivar, geographic origin and storage con- ditions. In general, cumin aldehyde, menthane derivatives, c-terpinene, p-cymene and b-pinene are major components of many essential cumin oils and are mainly responsible for the aroma and biological effects (Nestorova et al., 1977; Lis-Balchin et al., 1998; Hiller, 1999). To the best of our knowledge the essential oil from C. cyminum, extracted after extended seed-stor- age, has not been analysed before. Materials and methods Plant material Ripe seeds of cumin were harvested in the region near Plovdiv in 1963. The fruits were stored for 36 years in double paper sacks (30 years at chill temperature 3–5 °C, and 6 years at room tem- perature). The moisture of fresh and stored seeds was estimated by azeotropic distillation to be 8.1 and 8.2%, respectively. *Correspondent: Fax: ++43 1 4277 9551; e-mail: leopold.jirovetz@univie.ac.at International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2005, 40, 305–310 305 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.00915.x Ó 2005 Institute of Food Science and Technology Trust Fund