Nigella Sativa (Black seeds), a Potential herb for the Pharmacotherapeutic Management of Hypertension - A Review.

Hypertension is one of the leading risk factors of stroke, myocardial infarction and untimely death. The prevalence of hypertension is extremely high among the global population and many of them depend on modern medicines to manage their blood pressure. The modern antihypertensive medications include angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), calcium channel blockers (CCBs), diuretics, betaadrenergic blockers, direct renin inhibitors, direct acting vasodilators, alpha-adrenergic blockers and centrally acting drugs that are associated with many harmful and undesirable effects. The patients may consider traditional herbal medicines as a good strategy to manage chronic conditions due to the reasons such as perceived failure of allopathic medicines, relatively high cost of allopathic medicines, social cultural practices and/or herbal knowledge, poor access to medical facilities and safety concerns about modern medicines. Nigella sativa (Black seeds) has been used to treat various conditions including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. Hence, the antihypertensive potential of N. sativa is analyzed in this review. The literature was searched in databases including Medline/PMC/PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Directory of open access journals (DOAJ) and reference lists to identify articles associated with antihypertensive properties of N.sativa. Numerous randomized controlled trials and animal studies reported that N.sativa has potential antihypertensive effects. Hence, N. sativa could be used effectively to manage patients with stage 1 hypertension and the patients using modern antihypertensive medications could reduce their doses by adding N. sativa into their regimen as adjuvant therapy.