A Brief Study of Nigella sativa (Kalonji): A Unique Immunomodulator of Unani Medicine

Unani System of Medicine has a treasure of medical knowledge gained through the practice of medicine during its thousands of year’s journey. Modern science has recognized the importance of herbal medicines as scientific evidence is coming regularly on their safety and efficacy. COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for immunomodulators as impaired immune regulation is one of the factors that play a role in its pathogenesis and results in poor outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Innovative technologies and the excessive research on immunomodulatory natural products, plants, their extracts, are going on to develop a novel immunomodulatory agent to supplement the present chemotherapies. Kalonji (Nigella sativa Linn) has got the place among the top-ranked evidence-based herbal medicines. This has been revealed that most of the therapeutic properties of Kalonji are due to the presence of Thymoquine which is the major bioactive component of the its essential oil. Many researchers have demonstrated that N. sativa is a potent immunomodulator and antiviral agent even on COVID-19.This review is an effort to summarize the recent research work carried out by modern scientists on immunomodulator activities of the most reputed Unani single drug-Kalonji seeds to highlight the concept of Manaat (Immunity) in the Unani System of Medicine. This will help to develop a potent immunomodulator in near future to combat the horror of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this direction, we can include the whole Kalonji seed or Raughan Kalonji for comparative studies with Thymoquine as per the philosophy of Unani medicine on immunomodulation and antiviral studies in the future.