Al Jabre S, Al Akloby OM, Al Qurashi AR, Al Dossary A, Akhtar N, Randhawa MA.
Thymoquinone, an active principle of Nigella sativa, inhibited Aspergillus niger.
Pak J Med Res Jan ;42(3):102-4.

Nigella sativa (N. Sativa) seed called as `Habbah Al-Sauda` in Arabic, is commonly used as a natural remedy for many ailments over 2000 years and frequently added to bread and prickles as a flavouring agent. Recently, many active principles have been isolated from N. Sativa including thymoquinone, thymohydroquinone, dithymoquinone, thymol, carvacrol, nigellicine, nigellidine, nigellimine-N-oxide and alpha-hedrin. Besides, many other pharmacological effects, activity of N. sativa oil, ether extract and its active principle, thymohydroquinone, has been reported in the literature against a number of bacteria (including Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) and yeast (Candida albicans). Therefore, we thought that N. sativa or some of its active principles might have useful action against Aspergillus as well, which commonly causes opportunistic infection in immune deficient individuals. We studied the growth of Aspergillus niger in dermasel agar containing 0.25, 0.5, 1 & 2 mg/ml of thymoquinone; drmasel agar with selective supplement and dermasel agar alone. There was 0, 25, 77.1 and 100% inhibition of A. niger with 0.25, 0.5, 1 & 2 mg/ml of thymoquinone on day 7, giving MIC as 2 mg/ml. We hope our study will promote further investigations to determine usefulness of thymoquinone or N. sativa in the treatment and prevention of Aspergillosis.

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