Title:The Emergence of N. sativa L. as a Green Antifungal Agent
Volume: 24
Issue: 16
Author(s): Raghvendra Pandey, Brijesh Pandey and Atul Bhargava*
Affiliation:
- Department of Botany, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Motihari-845401 (Bihar), India
Keywords:
Nigella sativa, antifungal, pathogenic fungi, thymoquinone, dermatophytic fungi, antibiofilm.
Abstract:
Background: Nigella sativa L. has been widely used in the Unani, Ayurveda, Chinese,
and Arabic medicine systems and has a long history of medicinal and folk uses. Several phytoconstituents
of the plant are reported to have excellent therapeutic properties. In-vitro and in-vivo studies
have revealed that seed oil and thymoquinone have excellent inhibitory efficacy on a wide range
of both pathogenic and non-pathogenic fungi.
Objective: The present review aims to undertake a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the
antifungal effects of different phytochemical constituents of black cumin.
Method: An exhaustive database retrieval was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science,
SciFinder, Google Scholar, and CABI to collect scientific information about the antifungal activity
of N. sativa L. with 1990 to 2023 as a reference range using ‘Nigella sativa,’ ‘Nigella oil,’ ‘antifungal
uses,’ ‘dermatophytic fungi,’ ‘candidiasis,’ ‘anti-aflatoxin,’ ‘anti-biofilm’ and ‘biological activity’
as the keywords.
Results: Black cumin seeds, as well as the extract of aerial parts, were found to exhibit strong antifungal
activity against a wide range of fungi. Among the active compounds, thymoquinone exhibited
the most potent antifungal effect. Several recent studies proved that black cumin inhibits biofilm
formation and growth.
Conclusion: The review provides an in-depth analysis of the antifungal activity of black cumin.
This work emphasizes the need to expand studies on this plant to exploit its antifungal properties for
biomedical applications.
