Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
[PERSON]  
5 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
Eotany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
[PERSON]  
5 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
[PERSON]  
5 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
[PERSON]  
5 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]  
1 Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India 1  
[PERSON]  
5 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia 5  
[PERSON]. Thus, medicinal and aromatic plants are utilized regularly by more than three billion people in these countries [1]. These plants also provide a good source of income. With an increase in the economic growth of herbal products during the last decade, it is estimated that the market for herbal medicines will cross USD 107 billion by the end of 2020 [2]. As the demand for herbal medicines is increasing globally, the supply of medicinal plants is declining because most of this harvest is derived from wild and naturally growing resources. This over-exploitation of medicinal plants from natural resource has led these plants to be under the threat of extinction. The genetic improvement of medicinal plants to produce higher yields and more active ingredients might help fulfil the increasing demand for medicinal plants. These improved high-yielding medicinal plants can be used for commercial cultivation purposes. However, this strategy of genetic improvement can only be possible when there is a large genetic variability in the population. Induced mutagenesis is an important approach for enhancing the genetic variation in medicinal plants because medicinal plants have narrow genetic variability, and conventional breeding approaches for the development of genetically improved varieties to produce higher yields and active principles takes a long time [3]. The role of mutation breeding and plant mutagenesis in increasing the genetic variability for desired traits in various food crops has been proven beyond doubt [4; 5; 6]. Mutagen-induced mutation is a potential tool for improving different traits in crops. However, reports on the improvement of medicinal plants for cultivation purposes, using induced mutagenesis, are meager. _Nigella sativa_ L. is a potential medicinal and aromatic plant with a historical and religious background. It belongs to the botanical family of Ranunculaceae and is commonly known as black cumin. The seeds of _N. sativa_ are used in traditional medicine for the treatment of a large number of ailments [7; 8; 9; 10]. Due to its excellent therapeutic properties, _N. sativa_ is considered to be among the top-ranked evidence-based herbal medicines. Thymoquinone is a major bioactive molecule in _N. sativa_ seeds [11]. Effective utilization of _N. sativa_ for therapeutic and trade uses will largely depend on its seed yield and quality in terms of thymoquinone content. Present germplasms of this plant might not meet future needs. There is an increasing demand for _Nigella_ seed oil in various industries world-wide [12].