Black Seed Oil and Allergies

The estimate is that 1 in 5 people in the Western world have at least 1 allergy. That’s a lot of us affected. The reasons why are not for discussion here, just the possible solution. Pharmaceutical companies are happy to sell you steroid nasal sprays, antihistamines and decongestants but they don’t treat the underlying cause of the allergy, only the symptoms.

What are Allergies?
When your immune system reacts to something that is normally harmless, you have an allergy. From a runny nose and watering eyes all the way through to anaphylactic shock and death is what can result from allergies. Wouldn’t it be great if we had at our disposal a cheap and effective method to stop the immune system from overreacting?

The Researchr
We have known about black seed’s ability as an anti-histamine from as far back as 1970 when Marozzi et al. found significant anti-histamine effects. “An inhaled thymoquinone aerosol dose-dependently protected guinea pigs against histamine-stimulated bronchospasm in the range of 2.5–10 mg/kg”

There is more research on black seed being an anti-histamine but it’s mainly been performed in relation to asthma. I did, however, find a bunch of patents for allergy products that include black seed as a constituent for alleviating symptoms.

In a study on rabbits the researchers found, “The findings of present study show that oral pretreatment with Nigella sativa essential oil attenuates the ocular allergic response in rabbits that is produced by compound 48/80. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Nigella sativa essential oil has mast cells stabilizing property” REF - ‘Preventive Effect of Nigella Sativa Essential Oil on Signs of Ocular Allergy Induced by Compound 48/80 in Rabbits’

Another study was focused on guinea pig’s trachea and the researchers think that black seed has a blocking effect at the muscsarinic receptors. REF - 'Inhibitory Effect of Nigella sativa on Histamine Receptors of Isolated Guinea Pig Tracheal Chains'

In Turkey in 2010 there was a study done on 24 people that were sensitive to house dust mites with allergic rhinitis that were also receiving specific immunotherapy. These people were compared against a control group of 8 healthy people. During this study it was discovered that, “The CD8 counts of patients receiving specific immunotherapy plus N. sativa seed supplementation significantly increased compared to patients receiving only specific immunotherapy. PMN functions of healthy volunteers significantly increased after N. sativa seed supplementation compared to baseline.” REF - ‘Potential adjuvant effects of Nigella sativa seeds to improve specific immunotherapy in allergic rhinitis patients’

References
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/thymoquinone

‘Preventive Effect of Nigella Sativa Essential Oil on Signs of Ocular Allergy Induced by Compound 48/80 in Rabbits’ - Pakistan journal of Medical & Health Sciences VOL.
6 NO.
2 APR – JUN 2012

'Inhibitory Effect of Nigella sativa on Histamine Receptors of Isolated Guinea Pig Tracheal Chains' Pharmaceutical Biology 2002, Vol. 40, No. 8, pp.596-602

‘Potential adjuvant effects of Nigella sativa seeds to improve specific immunotherapy in allergic rhinitis patients’ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20357504 (as accessed 23 June 2018).