Table 3.

Final changes in mRNA expression levels in PBMCs and serum concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6 and leptin (and serum insulin) in NS intervention period and placebo period among women with overweight and obesity (n = 46) ^a

Variable b	Black seed oil baseline	Black Seed oil final	Δ Black seed oil	Placebo baseline	Placebo final	Δ Placebo	Treatment effect	Cohen’s d c	P treatment effect	P carryover effect
IL-1β (fold change)	1	0.55 (0.42 to 0.68)	-0.45 (-0.58 to -0.31)	1	0.76 (0.63 to 0.90)	-0.24 (-0.37 to -0.90)	-0.21 (-1.15 to -0.06)	0.68	0.03	0.16
IL-6 (fold change)	1	0.82 (0.73 to 0.90)	-0.20 (-0.26 to 0.05)	1	0.98 (0.92 to 1.03)	-0.01 (-0.07 to 0.05)	-0.17 (-0.28 to -0.60)	1.80	0.003	0.11
Leptin (fold change)	1	0.51 (0.44 to 0.57)	-0.49 (-0.55 to 0.43)	1	1.08 (1.01 to 1.16)	0.08 (0.02 to 0.10)	-0.57 (-0.68 to -0.47)	1.90	< 0.001	0.67
IL-1β (pg/ml)	2.77 (2.36 to 3.17)	2.36 (2.01 to 2.71)	-0.40 (-0.54 to -0.26)	2.79 (2.40 to 3.17)	2.88 (2.50 to 3.28)	0.10 (-0.14 to 0.34)	− 0.50 (-1.30 to -0.10)	1.60	< 0.001	0.31
IL-6 (pg/ml)	2.83 (2.36 to 3.20)	2.58 (2.12 to 3.03)	-0.25 (-0.37 to -0.13)	2.67 (2.26 to 3.07)	2.63 (2.23 to 3.01)	-0.04 (-0.09 to 0.02)	-0.22 (-1.20 to -0.10)	0.78	0.002	0.08
Leptin (ng/ml)	42.32 (40.75 to 43.90)	33.78 (31.61 to 35.90)	-8.44 (-10.46 to -6.41)	34.69 (32.60 to 36.78)	29.38 (26.41 to 32.34)	-5.36 (-7.17 to -3.56)	-3.10 (-13.40 to -0.06)	0.89	0.008	< 0.001
Insulin (μU/m)	6.32 (6.07 to 6.57)	5.62 (5.43 to 5.81)	-0.70 (-0.87 to -0.51)	6.30 (6.04 to 6.57)	5.87 (5.60 to 6.12)	-0.43 (-6.75 to -0.31)	-0.27 (-3.48 to -0.05)	0.30	0.02	0.81

^a A repeated-measure ANOVA model considering the effect of treatment, time, and interaction (carryover effect) was used for final analyses

^b Data are shown in mean (CI)

^c The Cohen’s d values of 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 locate at 58th, 69th and 79th percentile of the distribution of the control group, respectively

NS, Nigella Sativa; IL-1β, interleukin-1 beta; IL-6, interleukin-6