Original article
Anti-hypercholesterolemic and anti-hyperglycaemic effects of conventional and supercritical extracts of black cumin (Nigella sativa)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2017.10.005Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Objective

To explore the hypoglycaemic and hypocholesterolemic potential of conventional and supercritical extracts of black cumin.

Methods

Purposely, rat modelling was carried out for 2 months by designing three studies i.e. study I (normal rats), study II (hyperglycaemic rats) and study III (hypercholesterolemic rats). Each study was further divided into three groups based on diet i.e. control, functional diet (contained extract of black cumin prepared by using conventional solvent) and nutraceutical diet (contained extract of black cumin prepared by supercritical fluid extraction system).

Results

During whole trial, an abating trend was observed in the level of serum cholesterol with maximum reduction (12.8%) in nutraceutical group of study III. Low density lipoprotein and triglyceride level was also lowered maximum in study III as 17.1% and 11.6%, respectively. Whereas, highest decline in glucose level was in nutraceutical group of study II as 11.2%.

Conclusions

Inclusion of black cumin extracts in diet significantly lowers the occurrence of hyperglycaemia and hypercholesterolaemia. Furthermore, hypoglycaemic and hypocholesterolemic potential of nutraceutical diet is more prominent as compared to functional diet.

Keywords

Black cumin
Functional food
Nutraceuticals
Supercritical extract
Hyperglycaemia
Hypercholesterolaemia

Cited by (0)

Foundation project: This research project was partially supported by Higher Education Commission, Pakistan under Pak-US Science and Technology Cooperation Program Phase IV (Project Grant No. 10/01/10-09/30/12), project entitled “Establishment of Functional and Nutraceutical Food Research Section at the National Institute of Food Science and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan”.

Peer review under responsibility of Hainan Medical University. The journal implements double-blind peer review practiced by specially invited international editorial board members.