Protective Effects of Nigella Sativa Oil on IL-4 and Nitric Oxide Levels in a Model of Experimental Asthma in Wistar Rat

Asthma is a complex inflammatory disease which constitutes an important problem of public health. Indeed, it is the one of the chronic pathologies most frequent, with more than 300 million people reached in the world and recording more than 250000 deaths a year. In our present study, we selected an animal model of asthma that shows all the salient features of allergic airway inflammation in humans including increased Th2 cytokine levels in BALF, enhanced airway responsiveness, airway eosinophilic inflammation, and goblet cell hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Nigella sativa commonly known as black seed is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Ranunculaceae family. It has been widely studied for its pharmacological and therapeutic effects and shown to have extensive range of activities.