Blood Pressure and Lipid Lowering Effects of Nigella sativa Seeds and Honey Mixture

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect(s) of a mixture ofNigella sativaseeds (N. sativa; black cumin or fennel) and honey on (i) the modulation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks among hypercholesterolemic and healthy subjects; and (ii) to assess the lipid-soluble antioxidants capacity of samples using the photochemiluminescence (PCL) method. Sixty-five subjects, aged twenty-five to fifty-eight, were enrolledand assigned to three groups. Two groups of healthy andhypercholesterolemic subjects were supplemented with N. sativa seeds and honey at 50 mg/kg (body weight) daily for three months. The third group served as control (healthy subjects without supplementation). Fasting blood samples were taken at baseline and again after three months of supplementation to measure (i) total cholesterol (TC), (ii) triglycerides (TG), (iii) low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), (iv) high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), (v) blood glucose, and (vi) hemoglobin concentrations. The findings were significant (p  0.05),indicatingthat N. sativa seeds mixed with honey had hypolipidemic, antiobesity and hypotensive effects.Results showed significant reductions in TG (20.1%), TC:HDL-c (12.3%),accompanied by increased HDL-c (15.0%) among healthy subjects.Supplementation also significantly decreased TC (6.2%), TG (13.3%), TC:HDL-c (19.5%),with increased HDL-c (8.4%) in the hypercholesterolemic group. Furthermore, there were significant reductions in body weight, body mass index and body fat by 2.3%, 2.2%, 4.5%, and by 1.8%, 1.9%, 4.5% in healthy and hypercholesterolemic subjects, respectively. Blood pressureslowering werealso observed in hypercholesterolemic subjects with significant reductions in systolic blood pressure (3.9%) and diastolic blood pressure (5.5%). There were no significant effectsfromsupplementation on blood glucose or hemoglobin concentrations. It is postulated that the positive effects observed may be due to antioxidant activity. The combination of of N. sativa seeds with honey showed higher synergistic effectswhen compared withsupplementation ofN. sativa seeds or honey on their own. Overall, these findings suggest that a mixture of N. sativa seeds with honey hasbeneficial effects in loweringthe citedrisk indicators for cardiovascular disease as a natural source of antioxidant activity; thus aidingthe maintainence of health bylowering CVD risk factors.