International Journal of Horticulture and Food Science 2021; 3(1): 06-12

E-ISSN: 2663-1067
P-ISSN: 2663-1075
IJHFS 2021; 3(1): 06-12 Therapeutic use of Nigella sativa: A review
Received: 04-10-2020
Accepted: 09-12-2020
Dr. Md. Shahab Uddin and Dr. ZN Nuri
Dr. Md. Shahab Uddin
Department of Unani
Medicine, Hamdard University Abstract
Bangladesh, Gazaria, Nigella sativa also called prophetic medicine. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon on Him)
Munshiganj, Bangladesh recommended and used it to maintain health. Although the seeds of cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) are
widely used as a spice for their distinctive aroma, they are also commonly used in traditional medicine
Dr. ZN Nuri to treat a variety of diseases. The literature presents ample evidence for the biomedical activities of
Former Medical officer, cumin, which have generally been ascribed to its bioactive constituents such as terpenes, phenols, and
Hamdard Lab. (WQF) flavonoids. Those health effects of cumin seeds that are experimentally validated are discussed in this
Bangladesh review. Numerous pre-clinical and clinical trials have investigated its efficacy using the seed oil,
essential oil, and its main constituent thymoquinone (TQ). These investigations support its use either
independently or as an adjunct along with conventional drugs in respiratory problems, allergic rhinitis,
dyspepsia, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory diseases, and different types of human
cancer. Multiple studies made in the last decades validate its health beneficial effects particularly in
diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, respiratory disorders, inflammatory diseases, and cancer. Nigella
sativa seeds also possess immune stimulatory, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective,
and neuroprotective activities. TQ is the most abundant constituent of volatile oil of N. sativa seeds,
and most of the medicinal properties of N. sativa are attributed mainly to TQ. All the available
evidence suggests that TQ should be developed as a novel drug in clinical trials.

Keywords: medicine, traditional, thymoquinone, diabetes, evidence

1. Introduction
Nigella sativa is an amazing herb with a rich historical and religious background. The seeds
of N. sativa are the source of the active ingredient of this plant. The actual importance of N.
sativa to the Muslims came from the holy saying of the Prophet Mohammed “Prayers and
peace be upon him” in the black seed is the medicine for every disease except death
(Ghaznavi, 1991) [47]. It is the same black seed referred by Prophet Mohammed as a panacea
(universal healer), that is a remedy for all ailments but cannot prevent ageing or death
(Ghaznavi, 1991) [47]. Historical use of black seeds has been mentioned in various religious
and ethnic books. Black seeds are identified as the curative black cumin in the holy bible; it
is also described as the melanthion of Hippocrates. In the Greco Arab/ Unani-Tibb system of
medicine which originate from Hippocrates, his contemporary Galen and Ibn- sina has
regarded black seed as a valuable remedy in hepatic and digestive disorder. The famous book
of medicine by Ibn-sina “The cannon of medicine (980- 1037) revealed historical importance
of this Black seeds as the seeds “That stimulates the body’s energy and help recovery from
fatigue (Ghaznavi, 1991; Chevallier, 1996) [87, 21]. Through thousand of years, until the time
being, millions of people in the mediterranean region and Far East countries use the oil of N.
sativa seeds daily as a natural protective and curative remedy. Historically, it has been
recorded that N. sativa seeds were prescribed by ancient Egyptian and Greek physicians to
treat headache, nasal congestion, toothache and intestinal worm, as well as a diuretic to
promote menstruation and milk production (Hajhashemi et al., 2004) [50].

2. Synonym of black seeds in various languages

English: Black cumins, Love-in-a-mist.
Arabic: Habatut Barakah; Sonez ; Habatut – sauda; Kamune-asvad.
Corresponding Author: Hindi: Kalonji.
Dr. Md. Shahab Uddin
Department of Unani
Sankrit: Krishana – Jiraka.
Medicine, Hamdard University Persian: Siyadanah (Ahmad et al., 2004; Chevallier, 1996) [5, 21].
Bangladesh, Gazaria,
Munshiganj, Bangladesh

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3. Morphology of the plant

N. sativa is a braky, self-branching plant of about 50 to 60
cm in height. Leaves are divided into linear segment 2 to 3
cm long; they are apposite in pairs on either side of the
stem. Its lower leaves are small, and petiolate and upper
leaves are long. The plant has finely divided foliage and
pale bluish or white flowers. The flowers grow terminally
on its branches. N. sativa reproduces with itself and forms a
fruit capsule which consist of many white trigonal seeds,
once the fruit capsule has matured, it opens up and the seeds
contained within are exposed to the air becoming black in
colour (black seeds), seeds are triangular in shape, black in
colour and possess a severe pungent smell, contains
considerable amount of oil (Chevallier, 1996) [21]. Fig 1b: (Thymol)

4. Scientific classification of the plant 6. Pharmacological activity

Kingdom: Plantae. There are many studies have been conducted particularly
Subkingdom: Tracheobionata that is, vascular plant. during the last two decades on the effect of N. sativa seeds
Supervision: Spermatophyte. extracts or its active compounds on the various body
Order: Ranunculus’s. systems in vivo or in vitro. The following is the selection of
Family: Ranunculaceae-Butter cup family. some of these studies.
Genera: Nigella.
Species: sativa 6.1. Antioxidant activity
Antioxidant action of N. sativa may explain its claimed
5. Chemical constituents usefulness in folk medicine. The essential oil of N. sativa
N. sativa seeds contain 36 to 28% fixed oil, proteins, was tested for a possible antioxidant activity. The essential
alkaloid, saponin and 0.4 to 2.5% essential oil. The fixed oil oil, thymoquinone and other components like carvacrol,
is mainly composed of unsaturated fatty acid that includes anethole and 4-terpineol demonstrated respectable radical
arachidonic, eicosadienoic, linoleic and linolenic acid. The scavenging property. The free radical scavenging effect of
saturated fatty acid present in the oil are palmitic, stearic thymol, thymoquinone and dithymoquinone were studied on
and myristic acid (Hajhashemi et al., 2004) [50]. The the reactions generating reactive oxygen species such as
essential oil present in the seeds was analyzed by gas superoxide anion radical, hydroxyl radical and singlet
chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Many oxygen using the chemiluminescence and
components were characterized but the pharmacologically spectrophotometer methods (Kruk et al., 2000) [63].
active constituent of volatile oil are thymoquinone (Figure Thymoquinone and fixed oil of N. sativa were also reported
1a), dithymoquinone, thymol (Figure 1b) and to inhibit non-enzymatic peroxidation in ox brain
thymohydroquinone. Dithymoquinone is the dimerised form phospholipid liposomes (Houghton et al., 1995) [55]. The
of Thymoquinone (Ghosheh et al., 1999; Hajhashemi et al., antioxidant effect of thymoquinone (TQ) and a synthetic
2004) [48, 50]. The crystalline active principle, nigellone is the structurally related ter-butyl thymoquinone (TBHQ) were
only constituent of the carbonyl fraction of the oil. The other examined in vitro. Interestingly, both TQ and TBHQ
constituents of the volatile oil of the seed are p-cymene efficiently inhibited iron dependant microsomal lipid
carvacrol, t-anethole, 4-terpineol and longifoline. Four peroxidation in a concentration dependent manner (Badary
alkaloids have been reported as constituent of N. Sativa et al., 2003) [18, 19].
seeds. Nigellicine and nigellidine have an indazole nucleus
whereas nigellimine and N-oxide of nigellimine are 6.2. Hepatoprotective activity
isoquinolines (Atta-ur-Rehman, 1985a, b, 1995) [14, 15]. The protective action of thymoquinone against the
Recently, a triterpene saponin Alfa herein was isolated from hepatotoxin: terbutyl hyderoperoxide has been demonstrated
the seeds of N. sativa. α-heredin is known to have antitumor using isolated rat hepatocytes (Daba et al., 1998) [23]. In this
activity (Kumara and Haut, 2001) [64, 65]. study, the hepatoprotective activity of thymoquinone (TQ)
was compared with that of silybin a known hepatoprotective
agent. The mechanism of hepatoprotection of TQ is not
certain but may be related to the preservation of intracellular
gluathione (GSH), the depletion of which by oxidative stress
is known to increase the susceptibility of cells to irreversible
injury.

6.3. Anti-nephrotoxic activity

Administration of seed extract with cysteine, Vitamin E and
Crocus sativa before administrating the nephrotoxic drug
cisplatin was effective in ameliorating the biochemical and
physiological indices of nephrotoxicity (El-Dally et al.,
1996) [31]. This was also confirming with our previous
results and reported results of Nephroprotective activity of
Fig 1a: (Thymoquinone) N. sativa seed oil in nephrotoxicity induced by Cisplatin and

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Gentamycin (Tembhurne et al., 2008; Ali, 2004) [84, 10]. The writhing) conclude that the fixed oil of the seeds is
reason for the protective action is not certain but may be endowed with strong antinociceptive actions and these
related to the antioxidant action of the drug and the fact that actions were due to an opioid principle in the oil as they
the neprotoxic drug may induce its effects via generation of were antagonized by naloxone. In a study have used four
free radicals (El-Dally et al., 1996) [31]. Administration of different models of analgesia (hot plate test, tail pinched
thymoquinone with the drinking water before and during test, acetic acid induced writing and formalin induced pain)
ifosfamide treatment ameliorated the severity of ifosfamide for studying the analgesic activity of the drug. The
induced renal damage and improved most of the alteration mechanism of anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect seems
of biochemical parameters (Badary et al., 1996) [18, 19]. to be related to the inhibition of eicosanoid synthesis as
suggested by the study of Houghton et al. (1995) [55].
6.4. Antidiabetic activity
Al-Awadi and Gumma (1987) [7] have reported the use of a 6.8. Antinociceptive effects
plant mixture containing N. sativa, myrrh, gum, asafetida Study showed that the oral administration of N. sativa oil
and aloe by diabetics in Kuwait. They studied the effect of extracted from Egyptian N. sativa seeds produces a
these drugs for their glucose lowering effect in rats and suppressive effect on nociceptive responses caused by
found it to be effective. Further studies on the plant mixture thermal, mechanical and chemical nociceptive stimuli in
containing N. sativa revealed that the blood glucose mice, and that the antinociceptive effect of N. sativa oil is
lowering effect was due to the inhibition of hepatic partly attributable to its component, thymoquinone. It also
gluconeogenesis and the plant extract mixture may prove to revealed that at least the supraspinal opioid systems are
be useful therapeutic agent in the treatment of non-insulin involved in the antinociceptive effect of thymoquinone.
dependent diabetes mellitus (Al-Awadi et al., 1991)[6].
6.9. Anti-ulcer activity
6.5. Antimicrobial activity The aqueous extract of N. sativa seeds was effective in
The extract and the oil have been reported to have a broad reducing the ulcer index induced by Aspirin by about 36%
spectrum of activity against a number of microbes. In vitro (Rajkapoor et al., 1996) [77]. In other study oil of seed of N.
antibacterial effects of the essential oil showed pronounced sativa found to show protective effects on the formation of
activity even in 1:1000 dilutions against several organisms stress gastritis in hypothyroidal rats (Khaled et al., 2009)
[60]
that include Staphylococcus albus, E. coli, Salmonella typhi, . Recent clinical study is also supported with eradication
Vibrio cholera. The oil was more effective against gram of Helicobacter pylori in patient with non-ulcer dyspepsia
positive than gram negative organism. El-Kamali et al. (Salem et al., 2010) [79].
(1998) [34] using the plate diffusion method confirmed the
report and showed that essential oil was effective against 6.10. Anti-histaminic action
gram positive (Bacillus substilis and Staphylococcus The antihistaminic effect was first investigated by
aureus) and gram negative bacteria (E. coli and ElDakhakhany et al. (1982) [32] who reported the protective
Pseudomonas aeruginosa) the antibacterial effect was action of thymoquinone and carbonyl fraction of N. sativa
maximal when Bacillus substilis was used. The oil was against histamine-induced bronchospasm in guinea pigs.
found to have excellent antifungal activity particularly Furthermore, an in vitro study demonstrated that nigellone,
against Aspergillus species. In a study isolated from N. sativa, effectively inhibited the release of
using murine cytomegalovirus as a model intreaperitonneal histamine from mast cells, possibly through decrease in
administration of oil substantially decreased the viral load in intracellular calcium and inhibition of protein kinase C
liver and spleen (Salem et al., 2000) [79]. (Chakarvarti et al., 1993) [20]. These effects together with
analgesic and anti-inflammatory actions, perhaps can be
6.6. Antimalarial correlated with the use of N. sativa in eczema and asthma,
Various extracts of N. sativa found to show antiplasmodial for scorpion and spider stings and for the bites of cat, dog
activity against both in vivo and in vitro plasmodia and snake, recommended in the folk medicine (Al-Jishi et
infections. It shows 100% inhibition of the parasite growth al., 2003) [11].
(Plasmodium falciparum) at concentration 50 ug/ml. N.
sativa shows dose dependant activity against parasite (El- 6.11. Effect on cardiovascular system
Hadi et al., 2010) [32]. N. sativa alone or in combination with honey or garlic are
promoted for the treatment of hypertension which drew the
6.7. Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory activity attention of El-Tahir et al. (1993) [37, 38] to investigate the
Houghton et al. (1995) [55] reported that crude fixed oil of N. action of the volatile oil of N. sativa and its active
sativa and an active principle thymoquinone (TQ) inhibits constituent thymoquinone on the arterial blood pressure and
cycloxygenase and 5-lipooxygenase pathway of arachi heart of anaesthetized rats. Both agents produce a dose
donate metabolism in rat peritoneal leukocytes. The effect dependent decrease in the arterial blood processor and heart
was demonstrated via the dose dependant inhibition of the rates. These effects were significantly antagonized by
formation of thromboxane B2 and leukotrienes B4. This atropine, cyproheptadiene and hexamethonium. This
effect was later confirmed in experimental animal studies suggests that these effects were centrally antagonized
conducted using aqueous suspension of N. sativa crushed mainly via the involvement of 5-hydroxy tryptaminergic and
seed by Al-Ghamdi (2001) [8]. In this study, formation of muscarinic mechanism. Oral dose of 0.6 ml/kg/day of N.
edema in rat hind paw was inhibited and these effects were sativa extract produced a significant hypotensive effect in
comparable with Aspirin used as a standard antiflammatory spontaneously hypertensive rats. These findings were
drug using three antinociceptive tests in rats and mice significantly comparable with the standard anti-hypertensive
(hotplates test, tail pinched test, acetic acid induced drug nifedipine (Zaoui et al., 2002) [88, 89]. The effect of the

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drug was concluded to be partially due to its diuretic effect weeks) of N. sativa seeds in mice and rats were investigated
which was comparable to 0.5 mg/kg/day furosemide. In one through the determination, of LD50 values and examination
of study, two-month dietary supplementation with N. sativa of possible biochemical, hematological and
extract to normal rats has shown a homogenous cardiac histopathological changes. The low toxicity of N. sativa
hypertrophy and enhanced cardiac contractility at baseline fixed oil was evidenced by high LD50 values (11.915
conditions. The hearts of Nigella-treated rats developed a ml/kg), key hepatic enzyme stability and organ integrity
moderate but significant hypertrophy that was evident by an values. This suggests a wide margin of safety for therapeutic
increase in the heart weight to body weight ratio. The doses of fixed oil and N. sativa seeds. The LD50 value of
observed Nigella-induced cardiac hypertrophy was thymoquinone was found to be 2.4 g/kg. Inclusion of
associated with an increase in the baseline cardiac inotropic thymoquinone in the drinking water of mice at
properties (Yar et al.,2008) [87]. concentration of 0.03% for 90 days resulted in no signs of
toxicity except for significant decrease in fasting plasma
6.12. Effect on gastro-intestinal tract glucose concentration (Zaoui et al., 2002) [88, 89]. In a recent
In Unani medicine N. sativa is used for stomachache and as study of diazinon induced organ toxicity, with N. sativa
a digestive, carminative, laxative and anti-jaundice (Chopra seeds extract given orally for three and six weeks, the study
et al., 1956) [22]. Oral N. sativa powder was reported to observed attenuated extensive changes of hematological and
relieve flatulence. While Nigellone, an active principle of N. biochemical parameters in diazinontreated rats. Based upon
sativa was found to antagonize histamine induced these results, they suggested N. sativa seeds can be
contractions of guinea pig intestine. In addition, to this a considered as a promising therapeutic agent against
choleretic effect of N. sativa oil and its active principles hematotoxicity, immunotoxicity, hepatoxicity, nephrotxicity
(thymoquinone, thymohydroquinone and dithymoquinone) and cardiotoxicity induced by diazinon and may be against
reported, respectively (Mahfouz and ElDakhakhany, 1960) other chemical pollutants, environmental contaminants and
[67]
. El-Dakhakhani et al. (1965, 2000) [27, 28] investigated the pathogenic factors (Atef and Wafa, 2010) [13]. Some other
effect of N. sativa oil on gastric secretion and ethanol- studies also demonstrate that treatment with N. sativa
induced ulcer in rats. Reported to significant increase in resulted in significant decrease of haematological disorders
mucin content, glutathione level as well as a significant induced by aflatoxin and cadmium (Demir et al., 2006) [25].
decrease in mucosal histamine content and ulcer formation, No remarkable pathological changes were recorded in bone
with a protection ratio of 53.56%, was found in the N. sativa marrow of animals treated with suspension of N. sativa in
oil pretreated group. More recently, the crude extract of N. carbon tetrachloride induced bone marrow toxicity (Abou et
sativa was shown to cause a dose dependent (0.1 to 3.0 al., 2007 ) [3].
mg/ml) relaxation of spontaneous contractions of rabbit
jejunum as well as inhibition of K + - induced contractions 7. Conclusion
in a similar dose range, suggestive of calcium channel Most studies confirm its value in folk medicine as analgesic,
blockade (Gilani et al., 2001) [49]. Recently, Abdel-Sater anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer, anti-
(2009) [1] investigated the protective effects of N. sativa on microbial, anti-parasitic, antihypertensive and as an immune
hypothyroidism induced development of acute cold restraint stimulant. However, controversial results have been
stress gastritis in rats. reported for its effect on the respiratory system, blood
coagulation and uterine motility. More work is needed to
6.13. Effect on immune system determine the pharmacokinetics, biochemical,
As a natural remedy, people take N. sativa seeds or oil is a pharmacodynamic and therapeutics of active components
promoter of good health and for the prophylaxis of common and their interactions with modern drugs and importance to
cold and Asthama. In view of that, El-Kadi et al. (1986) [33] human health with sufficient detail.
investigated the effect of N. sativa on immune system and
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