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Black Cumin seeds were found in the tomb of Egyptian
Pharaoh Tutankhamum, who ruled Egypt from
1333 BC to 1324 BC. He was the son of Akhenaten and
Nefertiti and his tomb is the most complete Egyptian
tomb ever discovered. The Egyptians supposedly put the
seeds in his tomb so that he may have excellent health
in afterlife.
Out of several accompanying
articles found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh
Tutankhamum were the seeds of Black cumin [Nigella
sativa; (Zohary and Hopf. 2001)] not to be mistaken with
common cumin seed (Cuminum cyminum). It is a spice that
grows in the Mediterranean region and in Western Asian
countries including India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The
historical references to these seeds are also found in
some of the oldest religious and medical texts. For
example, it is referred to as 'Melanthion' by
Hippocrates and Dioscorides,
while the Bible describes it as the (see Bible for
the real word we can't put here)black cumin' (Isaiah
28:25, 27 NKJV). It is, therefore, no
wonder that they were thought to be worthy
accomplishments in the "From Life here to Eternity" by
the pharaoh as described earlier.
The black cumin herb goes by
many different names. For example, in old Latin it is
called 'Panacea' meaning "cure all"' while in Arabic it
is termed as 'Habbah Sawda' or 'Habbat el Baraka'
translated as 'Seeds of blessing. In India it is called
as Kalonji while in China it is referred as Hak Jung
Chou (Aggarwat el al, 2008). |
The plant belongs to the
Ranunculaceae family of flowering plants and genius
of about 14 species including Nigella arvensis,
Nigella ciliaris, Nigella damascene, Nigella
hispanica, Nigella intergrifolia, Nigella
nigellastrum, Nigella orientalis and Nigella sativa,
respectively. Among these, Nigella sativa is the
species most exhaustively investigated for
therapeutic purposes although other species have
also been implicated for therapetic uses (Aggarwat
el al, 2008).
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