nigella sativa

**Nigella sativa** is a medicinal botanical derived from the seeds of *Nigella sativa* L., commonly used as a dietary supplement and traditional herbal medicine. It is not a single chemically defined active pharmaceutical ingredient: preparations may contain whole or powdered seed, fixed oil, volatile oil, or extracts with variable phytochemical composition. Thymoquinone is a commonly measured volatile-oil constituent and pharmacological marker, but it is not synonymous with the full botanical product. Clinical investigations have evaluated oral preparations for type 2 diabetes, obesity-related metabolic measures, dyslipidemia, prediabetes, and influenza-like illness prevention, as well as a topical 5% gel for prevention of acute radiation dermatitis during breast-cancer radiotherapy. A placebo-controlled one-year study reported improved glycemic and oxidative-stress measures with 2 g/day oral *N. sativa* added to standard oral antidiabetic therapy; however, the heterogeneous, nonstandardized nature of botanical preparations prevents assignment of a single validated molecular mechanism or pharmaceutical indication to the species as a whole. ([journals.plos.org](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0113486))

Brand names

black seedblack cuminhabbatul barakahkalonji

Other names

Nigella sativa L.black seedkalonji