TABLE 1.

Some traditional uses of Nigella species.

Species	Traditional use	Country	References
Asia
N. arvensis (seed)	To treat lung, brain and skin	Palestine	(Jaradat et al., 2016a)
N. ciliaris (seed)	To treat abdominal pain and to facilitate delivery	Palestine	(Ali-Shtayeh et al., 2015)
N. ciliaris (seed)	To treat menstrual cycle problems	Iran	(Bahmani et al., 2015)
N. ciliaris (seed)	To treat cancer	Palestine	((Jaradat et al., 2016a; Hamarsheh et al., 2017)
N. sativa (seed)	To treat diuretic, analgesic, insomnia, dizziness, tinnitus, amnesia, and bronchial disorders	China	(Zhao et al., 2013)
N. sativa (seed)	To ease bowel and indigestion problems and to manage diabetes	India	(Tajmiri et al., 2016) (Esakkimuthu et al., 2016)
N. sativa (seed)	To manage pain during menstruation and diabetes	Bangladesh	(Esakkimuthu et al., 2016) (Esakkimuthu et al., 2016) (Hossan et al., 2018
N. sativa (seed)	Curative effects in bacterial-caused diseases, sexual tonic, to manage lactation and to decrease mental disturbances	Pakistan	(Khan et al., 2014; Aziz et al., 2017)
N. sativa (seed)	To treat malaria	Malaysia	(Al-Adhroey et al., 2010)
Africa
N. sativa (seed)	Hypoglycemic and hypotensive agent	Algeria	(Bouzabata, 2013)
N. sativa (wooden stem and seed)	Wooden steem: To treat jaundice. Seeds: Hypotensive agent and to treat heart diseases, headaches, nasal congestion, toothache, and against intestinal worms	Egypt	(El-Seedi et al., 2013)
N. sativa (seed, fruit and leaf)	Hypoglycemic and hypotensive agent and to deal with digestive, respiratory, and cardiovascular problems, and allergy	Morocco	(Eddouks et al., 2002; El-Seedi et al., 2013; Jamila and Mostafa, 2014)
Europe
N. damascena	Galactagogue (seed) and against trachoma	Italy	(Geraci et al., 2018) (Leporatti and Ghedira, 2009)
N. damascena	Antihelmintic (for children) and to treat haematuria and skin diseases (itchiness and eczema)	Serbia	(Geraci et al., 2018)