Nigella Sativa Research Paper

Introduction:

Nigella sativa is one of the medicinal plants with a rich history in traditional uses for many therapeutic properties especially in Asian countries and in the Middle East(1). We report a case of Erythema multiforme induced by oral use of Nigella sativa.

Case presentation:

A 61-year-old woman with itchy, puffy and pustular eruptions that had developed 20 days before hospitalized. Lesions began from the trunk and spread to the limbs and face. The patient has a history of hypertension, lung cancer, chemotherapy (one year ago) and has a cotrimoxazole allergy. She has daily ingested Nigella sativa with honey, in order to gastrointestinal disorders, for 5 days before this eruption. Bullous targetoid lesions in some parts of the body,

Many active ingredients in the seeds of Nigella sativa (NS) were found. Most of the biological activities and therapeutic properties of NS related to thymoquinone, the major component of the essential oil (2).In recent years, experimental and clinical studies have shown that the NS oil or extract has a wide spread of medicinal properties including anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory actions, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, analgesic, anti-histaminic, anti-microbial, gastroprotective, pulmonary protective, nephroprotective, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective and anti-diabetic. Also, it has beneficial in reproductive system and skin(3). Mabrouk et al showed oral consume of NS with honey has a protective effect against carcinogenesis in lung, skin, and colon(4). NS in skin diseases including psoriasis(5, 6), vitiligo and in eczema of the hand has been demonstrated beneficial(7, 8). .although NS is a relatively safe compound(9), in rare cases has been reported that it can induce allergies contact dermatitis(10, 11), erythema multiforme and bullous drug eruptions(12-14). Erythema multiforme induced by NS is a rare variation. Recently 3 cases reported in the literature including three women (aged between 53 to 56 years) that two of them had local and oral use of Nigella sativa oil simultaneously and in the last one, she consumed orally mixed in honey as well as our case. in order to these reports, patients used NS for 15 days before eruptions appeared, but in our case duration of exposure was 5 days, hence we concept that probably her immune system was weak because of the chemotherapy. Also, other cases had any recurrence of disease but in our case, we faced with continuous erythema multiforme (persistent EM) probably associated