Nigella Sativa
What is Nigella Sativa?
Also known as Black Seeds and Black Cumin
Thymoquinone (TQ), is the principle active constituent Nigella sativa
Nigella sativa is a flowering plant found throughout India, Arabia, and Europe. Nigella sativa has been proven over and over again to successfully treat cancer without the use of conventional treatments. Nigella sativa has been shown to be effective against numerous cancers, such as pancreatic, colon, prostate, breast and even brain cancers.
Nigella Sativa Treats Lung Cancer and More
A clue to the historic importance of Nigella Sativa, might be found in the fact that it was placed in King Tut’s tomb. Since the items in this tomb were carefully selected with the King’s afterlife in mind, one can assume that this little black seed was highly regarded by the ancient Egyptians. But they weren’t the only ones. In addition, there is a reference to black seed in the Bible (Isaiah 28:25, 27), and also Islamic writings, which quote Mohammed as saying, “There is healing in black seed (haba sowda) for all diseases except death.”
While some alternative treatments have a relatively short history, with minimal or incomplete information, we have seen that Nigella Sativa (N. Sativa) has enjoyed centuries of popularity and success. This continues into present day, where it has been referenced in over 458 published, peer-reviewed studies, to date. With antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties, it’s no surprise that N. Sativa has an excellent reputation for the treatment and prevention of disease. It could easily be called a “Superfood”. Although it has many active ingredients that contribute to it’s efficacy, a major component of the oil is thymoquinone (TQ). TQ is considered to be a potent antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-mutagenic (anti-tumor) agent.
Lung cancer, in particular, seems to be noticeably affected by N. Sativa. In one study, which investigated the anticancer activity of it’s seed extract and seed oil against a human cancer cell line, the data revealed that the treatment significantly reduced the viability of human lung cancer cells. In another study, Thymoquinone (TQ) and cisplatin (CDDP) were used as a therapeutic combination in lung cancer, in vitro and in vivo. This study on mice showed TQ was able to inhibit cell proliferation, reduce cell viability, induce apoptosis, and reduce tumor volume and weight. It was therefore concluded that TQ and CDDP appear to be an active therapeutic combination in lung cancer…continue reading at United Patients Group
Some of the many published studies
This study says: We report here a very high efficacy of the essential oil in reducing tumor volume, inhibiting metastasis development and delaying mortality of P815 tumor-bearing mice.
This Review says: Thymoquinone (TQ), the principle active constituent of black seed (Nigella sativa), has promising properties including anticancer and chemosensitizing peculiarities. The anticancer power of TQ is accomplished by several aspects; including promotion of apoptosis, arrest of cell cycle and ROS generation. In addition, it boosts the immune system and lessens the side effects associated with traditional anticancer therapy. TQ also controls angiogenesis and cancer metastasis.
This study says: … the present study was designed to investigate the anticancer activity of seed extract (NSE) and seed oil (NSO) of N sativa against a human lung cancer cell line… The data revealed that the treatment of seed extract (NSE) and seed oil (NSO) of Nigella sativa significantly reduce viability of human lung cancer cells.
This study says: Experimental findings and recent advances in the field highlight TQ as an effective therapeutic agent for the suppression of tumor development, growth and metastasis for a wide range of tumors.
This study says: Results from all the experiments suggested that TQ could significantly inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in the leukemic cell line CEMss.
This study says: Chehl et al. (2009) showed that TQ, the major constituent of N. sativa oil extract, induced apoptosis and inhibited proliferation in PDA (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) cells. They also suggested TQ as a novel inhibitor of pro-inflammatory pathways, which provides a promising strategy that combines anti-inflammatory and proapoptotic modes of action. TQ also can abrogate gemcitabine- or oxaliplatin-induced activation of NF-kappa B, resulting in the chemosensitization of pancreatic tumors to conventional therapeutics (Banerjee et al., 2009). The high molecular weight glycoprotein mucin 4 (MUC4) is aberrantly expressed in pancreatic cancer and contributes to the regulation of differentiation, proliferation, metastasis, and the chemoresistance of pancreatic cancer cells.
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