The Black Seed Nigella sativa Linnaeus - A Mine for Multi Cures: A Plea for Urgent Clinical Evaluation of its Volatile Oil

Abstract

This review almost covers what is actually known to date about the black seed and its constituents. It is clear that most of the potent and fruitful activity resides in its volatile oil and a protein component. However, the volatile oil suffers the drawback of the bronhoconstricting effect of thymoquinone. However, the latter can be easily removed from the oil to obtain a dethymoquinoneated oil that has already been shown to possess the major characteristics of the whole oil. At this moment there are a lot of experimental data that hopefully, may stimulate the beginning of the era of pilot clinical studies to evaluate the clinical potential of the volatile oil, some of the protein fractions and the dethymoquinoneated volatile oil. It is hoped that this plea will have a rapid response.