Effective plant extracts are highly desired as a "natural" way to treat a disease. It is believed that natural preparations will not have as much of an adverse effect on the body as synthetic preparations.

Natural remedies and alternative medicine are becoming redicovered as a real solution to restore and sustain good health

Research has identified black seed as being highly beneficial for cancer treatment.

Cancer is a life threatening illness. People suffering from chronic illness is increasing annually.

In 1900 the possibility of contacting a cancer related illness was 3%, that has now risen to 40%.

Global cancer rates are expected to increase 50 % more than the present rate by the year 2020, according to the latest report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization (WHO). The 351-page study, titled "World Cancer Report", has described that 10 million people developed malignant tumours and 6.2 million died from the disease in the year 2000.

Heart disease is today the biggest killer in the U.S. which results from the popularity of poor diets, especially fast foods and unhealthy living. With this in mind the idea of preventing the onset of this deadly illness by simply taking a teaspoon daily of this healing oil becomes very attractive.

Today the treatment of cancer is receiving serious attention. Cancer therapies are available today which are effective in killing cancer cells. However, many of these medicaments also damage or kill off normal cells or have other serious side effects.

Consequently the idea to develop an anticancer program which is specific for the cancerous growth in the body, but which is not harmful to the rest of the body system is being seriously studied.

Black seed has been treated as serious natural remedy for cancer and has been patented by the FDA in USA in 2 separate cases for the treatment of cancer and other conditions and the prevention of the side affects of anti cancer chemo-therapy and to support the immune system.

The most recent paper to date has shown that thymoquinone (the volatile oil of black seed) may be used to help stop pancreatic cancer, one of the most difficult cancers to treat.

Dr. Arafat confirmed that although they are in the early stages of research their findings indicate that thymoquinone may be used as a preventative strategy for patients after surgery and receiving chemotherapy or for patients who are at high risk of getting cancer.

Using a human pancreatic cancer cell line, the team at the Kimmel Cancer at Jefferson in Philadelphia, US, found that adding thymoquinone killed approximately 80 percent of the cancer cells.

They commented that they had not anticipated thymoquinone to be so successfull and the results were very remarkable and really exciting.

Source: Thomas Jefferson University

Black seed has also been verified in research as a valuable anti-tumour agent in the field of alternative medicine. Tumours are the breakdown of our body cells and often lead to various cancers.

While taking black seed oil with its endless list of healing components we prevent the possibility of our body cells falling to a cancer.

For those who are unlucky enough to have cancer, research is confirming that black seed may work effectively to counter act this illness. At the same time it can be used in conjunction with the heavy chemotherapy used as a cancer remedy and reduce the side affects caused.

In 1997 at the Cancer Research Laboratory of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA, it was proven that black seed oil had enormous success in tumour therapy without the negative side effects of common chemo-therapy.

They explain that a healthy immune system will detect and destroy cancer cells before the cancer endangers the patient. The immune system does this by supporting increased production of immune cells, bone marrow cells, and B-cells that produce antibodies.

Black seed stimulates neutrophil activity where the short-lived immune cells that are normally found in bone marrow but mobilized into action when there is a bacterial infection. They believe this herb should be used in cancer prevention and cure and that it has remarkable promises for clinical use.

At the Amala Cancer Research Centre, Kerala, India in 1991 they found that this healing herb could be effective as a chemotherapeutic agent.

In other studies made it was found that this herb diminishes toxic side effects caused by several other chemotherapeutic drugs. Extracts from the seeds were toxic to cancer cells and prevent blood cell toxicity caused by the anti-cancer drug cisplatin.

The active components of black seed, thymoquinoline and dithymoquinone have been shown to inhibit tumour cells, even tumor cells resistant to anti-cancer drugs.

Black seed has been traditionally used with other herbs as a remedy against cancer in Sri Lanka. In 2003 in Sri Lanka four medical faculties joined together to investigate if this traditional remedy was effective. Their study confirmed that the traditional application of this herb was indeed beneficial.

In 2003 at the Jackson State University, USA, (3) Dr,s were interested how black seed had been used for such a long time for the treatment of so many acute ailments . They decided to study black seed's effectiveness in cancer prevention.

They exposed breast cancer cells to the seeds extracts, the breast cancer cells were inactivated whereby they concluded that it had promising results in the field of prevention and treatment of cancer.

Also in the same year Dr,s at the Osaka City University Medical School in Japan, tested Black seed for cancer of the colon where there studies displayed that black seed inhibited the growth of cancer in the postinitiation stage.

In 2003 the International Journal of Oncology reported that a study suggested that Thymoquinone (extact from the seed) kills cancer cells by a process that involves apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. This was from a study conducted in Japan in the same year.

In 2004 at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, thymoquinone was investigated to see if it triggers apoptotic cell death in human colorectal cancer cells. They concluded that thymoquinone has the potential for the treatment of colon cancer.

In April 2005 in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention it was reported that a study suggested that black seed is a potent chemopreventive agent.

In 1991 at the Amala Research Center in Amala Nagar, Kerala (India) studies confirmed the use of black seed oil as an anti tumour agent.

Using an active principle of fatty acids derived from black seed, it was displayed they could completely inhibit the development of a common type of cancer cells called Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC).

A second common type of cancer cells, Dalton's lymphoma ascites (DLA) cells were also used. Mice which had received the EAC cells and black seed remained normal without any tumour formation, illustrating that the active principle was 100% effective in preventing EAC tumour development.

The study concluded, "It is evident that the active principle isolated from nigella sativa seeds is a potent anti-tumour agent, and the constituent long chain fatty acid may be the main active component."

In 1999 at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, at the Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, the volatile oil of Black seed, thymoquinone was investigated for it's anti tumour effect.

Female Swiss albino which had been induced with forestomach tumours were administered with doses of thymoquinone. Thymoquinone inhibited the tumours by 70% and 63% respectively.

They concluded that thymoquninone may act as a powerful chemo preventive agent against induced fore stomach tumours in mice probably due to its' antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities along with its enhancement of detoxification processes.

In 2001 they studied thymoquinone on fibrosarcoma tumours where it's antitumour effects were also confirmed.

New papers are constantly being written due to the constant success of this ancient herbal remedy.