seeds of black cumin (nigella sativa l.) were subjected to subcritical co2 extraction (sbfe) at 70 bar and 30 ^0c for 2 h in a trial to isolate a volatile oil-rich fraction. that treatment led to obtaining an oleoresin which constituted 1.74 wt.% of the total seeds' weight and was found to be rich in its volatile oil content (66.6 wt.%). traditional methods of extracting the oleoresin using n-hexane at room temperature or at 60 ^0c led to much higher yields (23.6 and 32.9 wt.%), respectively. the volatile oils' content of these oleoresins was 4.75 and 3.59 wt.%. gc-ms analysis showed that the volatile oil obtained after sbfe is characterized by the highest thymoquinone (tq) content (60.5%) compared to that obtained after hexane extraction at room temperature (37.6%) or at 60 ^0c (41.6%). on the other hand, tq content of the volatile oils isolated directly from the seeds by hydrodistillation and steam distillation was much lower (10.2 and 23.7%), respectively. based on the above mentioned, sbfe of n. sativa seeds was found to be a useful green tool for obtaining a volatile oil-rich oleoresin with high tq percentage which can be applied in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products.