Antimicrobial and antioxidant assessment of Trigonella foenum-graecum

Trigonella foenum-graecum (fenugreek) is an important medicinal herb of the family Fabaceae. It has wide utility in culinary and ethnomedicinal formulations. Globally, the different folkloric formulations use this plant as an immunity booster. Unfortunately, the lack of proper studies imposes a major obstacle to the successful and fruitful realization of its full pharmacological potential. In the current study, pharmacological testing was performed on Trigonella seed oil.

The seed oil was extracted using the Soxhlet apparatus. The antimicrobial study of fenugreek seed oil was done using the disc-diffusion and broth dilution method against different bacterial and fungal strains. The antioxidant assessment was done by DPPH and ABTS assay.

The yield of essential oil obtained from Trigonella seeds was 4.35%. GC-MS analysis has confirmed the presence of diverse phytocompounds in Trigonella seed oil. Dibutyl. phthalate was recognized as the major phytocompound of Trigonella seed oil. The oil had significant antifungal and antioxidant activity. In conclusion, oil is a good pharmacological agent and can be explored further for therapeutic purposes.