# Black seed (Nigella sativa) *Black cumin, nigella, fennel flower, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander; Hindi and Bengali *kalajira*, *mugrela*, Bombay *kalonji*; Sanskrit *krishnajiraka*; Persian *shuniz*; French *faux cumin*, *quatre épices*, *toute épice*; German *Schwarzkummel*; *Nigella sativa* L.* **Known today as.** *Nigella sativa*, a small annual of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, which Grieve calls “not in any way related to the Fennel” despite its name. It has deeply cut greyish-green leaves and greyish-blue flowers, followed by toothed seed-vessels full of small three-cornered seeds, black outside and white and oily within. Grieve gives it as native to Syria, LiverTox to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. LiverTox names thymoquinone, one of its volatile oils, as the suspected major active component. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** LiverTox finds it well tolerated and an unlikely cause of liver injury: side effects such as abdominal discomfort, bloating, altered taste, diarrhoea, and headache are generally transient and mild, with rare rash and hypersensitivity reactions. The older sources are warier. Grieve reports a glucoside, melanthin, said to act like the most poisonous saponins, and a paralysing alkaloid; Dioscorides says a large draught kills; and Dymock, Warden, and Hooper report clinical observations at Karikal, published in 1881, that large doses of the powdered seed acted as an emmenagogue in painful menstruation and that larger ones caused abortion. ## What was it used for? A spice and a carminative. Dutt records that the seeds were regarded in Sanskrit medicine as aromatic, carminative, stomachic, and digestive, used in indigestion, loss of appetite, fever, diarrhoea, and the diseases that follow childbirth, and given to newly delivered mothers to increase their milk. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper add that Hindu physicians prescribed it with other aromatics and plumbago root in dyspepsia, and that the Hakeems thought it increased the menstrual flow and the milk and stimulated the womb. Grieve and Dutt both record its use all over India to keep insects out of linen and woollen clothes. ## What does modern science say? No European monograph covers it. Recent meta-analyses are favourable on risk factors for heart disease: one of thirty-one trials in people with metabolic disease (2026) found modest falls in weight, blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, and HbA1c, though none in insulin resistance or waist size, and urged caution given the variable quality of the studies; one of sixteen trials in type 2 diabetes (2025) found lower fasting glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol; a third, of eighty-two trials (2025), called it “a promising adjunct therapy” for cardiovascular risk factors; and an umbrella review of seven meta-analyses (2025) found lower markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. LiverTox, revised in 2023, takes a cooler view: the effects shown in cells and animals have not been consistently demonstrated in human trials, and the effects on cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure are modest, so that “the overall evidence for clinical benefit of these effects, however, is not very convincing.” ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **thymoquinone**: among the volatile oils, the suspected major active component - **linoleic acid**: among the fixed oils - **melanthin**: a glucoside, by Grieve’s account **Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry. **Standing.** There is no European monograph. Meta-analyses (2025, 2026) find modest effects on cardiovascular risk factors; LiverTox (2023) calls the overall evidence “not very convincing.” ## What lore surrounds it? A footnote in Dymock, Warden, and Hooper records that the seed “is said in a tradition to be a remedy for every disease except death.” LiverTox repeats the saying as “a famous comment”: “the black cumin is healing for all diseases except death.” In Grieve’s account the Egyptians spread the seeds on bread or cakes, believing them fattening, and French cooks used them under the name *quatre épices*. ## What did the older authorities say? **Dioscorides, *De materia medica* (1st century), book 3.** Dioscorides describes *melanthion* as a little shrub with a poppy-like head full of black, sweet-smelling seed that was sprinkled on loaves. He applied it to the forehead for headache, with vinegar for freckles and hard lumps, and as a mouthwash for toothache; taken for several days, he says, it brings on menstruation, urine, and milk, and he adds the report that it kills if a great deal is drunk. The translators of the modern English version identify it, among other nigellas, as *Nigella sativa*, and mark it poisonous. **Dymock, Warden, and Hooper, *Pharmacographia Indica* (1890).** Following Birdwood, they take it to be the black cummin of the Bible, the *melanthion* of Hippocrates and Dioscorides, and the *gith* of Pliny, and conclude from its Sanskrit name that it “must have been long known in India.” It was sprinkled, with sesame, on the bread of Muslim bakers. ## Sources - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Fennel Flower.” As published on botanical.com. - Dioscorides. *De materia medica*, 3-93, in the modern English version of T. A. Osbaldeston and R. P. A. Wood (Johannesburg: Ibidis, 2000), after Goodyer’s translation of 1655. Internet Archive. - Dymock, W., Warden, C. J. H., & Hooper, D. (1890). *Pharmacographia Indica*, vol. 1, “Nigella sativa.” Internet Archive, b2129737x_0001. - Dutt, U. C. (1877). *The Materia Medica of the Hindus*, “Nigella sativa.” Internet Archive, materiamedicaofh00duttuoft. - Musazadeh V, et al. (2026). The Effect of Nigella sativa Supplementation on Cardiometabolic Health in Patients With Metabolic Diseases: A GRADE-Assessed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. *Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism*. PMID 41858302. - Karimi M, et al. (2025). Effects of black seed (Nigella sativa L.) on cardiometabolic indices in type 2 diabetic patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs. *Complementary therapies in medicine*. PMID 40210172. - Jafari A, et al. (2025). Does Nigella sativa supplementation improve cardiovascular disease risk factors? A comprehensive GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of 82 randomized controlled trials. *Pharmacological research*. PMID 40714301. - Lan X & Xia Y (2025). Alleviating effects of Nigella sativa supplements on biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress: Results from an umbrella meta-analysis. *Prostaglandins & other lipid mediators*. PMID 39709091. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “BlackCumin.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2023. NCBI Bookshelf. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “BlackCumin.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2023. NCBI Bookshelf. - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Fennel Flower.” As published on botanical.com. - Musazadeh V, et al. (2026). The Effect of Nigella sativa Supplementation on Cardiometabolic Health in Patients With Metabolic Diseases: A GRADE-Assessed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. *Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism*. PMID 41858302. --- *Black seed.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-17. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/black-seed Historical description, not medical advice.