Description

Zeera Siyah — ‘black cumin’ in Persian-Urdu — is the classical Unani pharmacopoeial designation for the seeds of Nigella sativa, referred to in Hadith literature as Habbatus Sauda (the black seed). This entry is distinct from the separately catalogued Kalonji entry (same species) in that it reflects the specific Unani pharmacopoeial context and Islamic medical tradition under which the seed is formulated and traded in South Asian Unani pharmaceutical manufacturing. Documented in Ibn Sina’s Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb as effective ‘against all ailments except death,’ the seeds contain thymoquinone, a bioactive monoterpene ketone that has attracted the most extensive phytochemical and pharmacological research of any single plant compound in recent decades — with over 2,000 published studies indexed in PubMed. Incorporated in compound Unani preparations for respiratory, immune, digestive, and reproductive applications.