Used effectively for over 1000 years to support the body in times of respiratory distress and high blood pressure, Nigella Sativa was predicted by two different supercomputer studies to be an effective support herb against SARS Coronavirus. Find out why.
Nigella Sativa’s powerful support for the body’s natural antiviral activities particularly against HIV, and its ability to interfere with coronavirus replication was tested in cell cultures in 2014.
April 2020 in Algeria a supercomputer with database of molecules natural or synthetic was given the structure of the sars cov 2 virus, to see which medicines or plant extracts would best attack the the main protease of the virus. Comparing compounds from nigella to chlorine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, remdesivir, favipiravir. Nigellidine gave a score close to the one given by Chloroquine and better score than Hydroxychloroquine and Favipiravir.
With 1000 years human experience using Nigella for assisting the body to fight infections naturally, research was carried out into the relationship between Nigella and Zinc.
This paper from Journal Herbal Medicine October 2020 highlights the ionophore rationale.
(Zn is useful to inhibit the reverse transcriptase enzyme called ‘rdrp’ which is required for certain viruses to replicate in each cell, but the Zn requires an ‘ionophore’ to change cellular barriers for it to effectively be taken up into cells, Zn plus ionophore worked well against previous SarsCov viruses leading to development of protocols involving syntheti ionophores such as hydroxychloroquine. A number of terpenes present in NS are similar to HCQ which acted as Zn ionophore. Furthermore, the primary constituent of the Nigella Sativa oil, Thymoquinone is the right shape to block entry of SARS COV virus into our angiotensin ACE2 receptor sites)
Potential benefits of combination of Nigella sativa and Zn supplements to treat COVID-19
This summary paper from July 2020, despite alternative spelling has a really good summary with references for further reading on mechanisms for the plant extract against this disease, in particular the anti-inflammatory mechanism of the plant component called alpha hederin in the lungs.
Studies
Nigella Sativa & honey placebo controlled trial in Pakistan on patients in several centres (seeds given at 80mg/kg/day)
About 200 patients multiple centres, severe and moderate and they cleared disease much faster 4 days on average, better treatment outcomes, and much lower mortality
Feb 2021, a Chinese group published in Infectious diseases and Therapy, reporting that based on a computational model and then biological testing that Nigella extracts may stops coronavirus entering the ACE2 receptor.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40121-021-00400-2
Sep 2021: Saudi study was published in complementary therapeutic medicine
172 patients, and treated group again recovered better and faster than placebo (randomised controlled trial)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34407441/
The role of thymoquinone, a major constituent of Nigella sativa, in the treatment of inflammatory and infectious diseases (review)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1440-1681.13553
