We have been conducting research on the beneficial effects of Nigella sativa for more than 15 years. We have conducted several clinical trials and used up to 3 g/d and found no toxic effect, rather N. sativa had positive effects on these patients. N. sativa in three doses (1, 2, and 3 g/d) with 40 mg nexium produced from 50% to 67% eradication of Helicobacter pylori in non-ulcer dyspeptic patie...

OBJECTIVE The possible toxicity of drugs in pregnancy should be tested before their use in pregnant patients. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the safety of phytovagex, a pessary formulation of Nigella sativa (N. sativa), which is already in clinical use for vaginal fungal infection. MATERIALS AND METHODS The pregnant rats were treated intravaginal with physiological saline (vehicle...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism(s) responsible for the vasorelaxant effect of Nigella sativa (N. sativa). METHODS The activity of different concentrations of N. sativa extract was evaluated on contractile responses of isolated aorta to KCl and phenylephrine (PE). RESULTS The extract (2-14 mg/mL) induced a concentration dependent relaxation both in endothelium-...

The incidence of food hypersensitivity and food allergies is on the rise and new treatment approaches are needed. We investigated whether N. sativa, one of its components, thymoquinone, or synthetic opioid receptor (OR)-agonists can alleviate food allergy. Hence, ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized BALB/c-mice were pre-treated either with a hexanic N. sativa seed extract, thymoquinone, kappa-(U50'4889) ...

Nigella sativa is the miraculous plant having a lot of nutritional and medicinal benefits, and attracts large number of nutrition and pharmacological researchers. N. sativa seed composition shows that it is the blessing of nature and it contains and many bioactive compounds like thymoquinone, α-hederin, alkaloids, flavonoids, antioxidants, fatty acids many other compounds that have positive eff...

During evolution, various processes such as duplication, divergence, recombination, and many other events leads to the evolution of new genes with novel functions. These evolutionary events, thus significantly impact the evolution of cellular, physiological, morphological, and other phenotypic trait of organisms. While evolving, eukaryotes have acquired large number of genes from the earlier pr...

Diabetic nephropathy is one of the major complications of diabetes. In recent years, several plant extracts and herbal formulations are used as antidiabetic formulations. It has been suggested that Eruca sativa exert a beneficial antidiabetic effect in rats by reducing oxidative stress. The present research work was designed to evaluate the effect of methanolic and aqueous extracts of Eruca sat...

Metallothioneins are low-molecular-weight proteins capable of covalently binding heavy metal ions due to the presence of many cysteine residues in their sequences. We analyzed the predicted amino acid sequences of 19 metallothionein (7 from Arabidopsis thaliana and 12 from Oryza sativa) and their promoter sequences in silico in order to determine the potential regulatory cis-elements present in...

BACKGROUND Limited evidence supports Nigella sativa's role as an effective complementary and alternative medicine and the anti-inflammatory effects of Nigella sativa on patients with allergic rhinitis. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of topical application of Nigella sativa oil and oral acetaminophen on pain in the elderly with knee osteoarthritis residing in a p...

BACKGROUND Liver disease is the major cause of serious health problem leading to morbidity and mortality worldwide and the problem has increased in search for hepatotherapeutic agents from plants. The present study was designed to compare the probable hepatoprotective activity of olive oil and N. sativa oil on CCl4 induced liver damage in male rats. METHODS Forty males of a new model of albin...