Nigella sativa (N. sativa) is an annual flowering plant that has been used as a traditional remedy for many centuries. The seed possesses a large variety of compounds with thymoquinone (TQ) considered its major but not sole bioactive constituent. Supercritical fluid extraction, geographical location, and oxidative status of N. sativa produces the highest yield of essential oil content including TQ. Thymoquinone is lipophilic, heat and light sensitive with low oral bioavailability and rapid elimination that have significantly inhibited its pharmacological development. Novel developments in nanoparticulate‐based oral administration, nasal spray and transdermal delivery may allow the clinical development of N. sativa and TQ as therapeutic agents. Animal and human studies indicate a potential role of N. sativa seed oil and TQ for a diverse range of disease processes including hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, arthritis, asthma, bacterial and viral infections, neurological and dermatological disorders, as it belongs to the group of pan‐assay interference compounds. This review outlines the pharmacological properties of N. sativa and TQ and their potential wide application for a large variety of human diseases. The paper will focus on recent studies of the anti‐inflammatory and antiviral properties that make N. sativa and TQ promising therapeutic agents targeting contemporary inflammatory and infectious diseases including Covid 19.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented global effect on teaching and education. This review discusses research, education and diagnostics from the perspectives of four academic clinicians and researchers across different facilities in Australia. Materials and methods: The study adopted a literature review and an Australian researcher’s perspective on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health education, research and diagnostics. Results: At the start of the pandemic, medical facilities had to adhere urgently to major work restrictions, including social distancing, mask-wearing rules and/or the closure of facilities to protect staff, students and patients from the risk of COVID-19 infection. Telemedicine and telehealth services were rapidly implemented and adapted to meet the needs of medical education, the teaching of students, trainee doctors, nursing and allied health staff and became a widely accepted norm. The impact on clinical research and education saw the closure of clinical trials and the implementation of new methods in the conducting of trials, including electronic consents, remote patient assessments and the ability to commence fully virtual clinical trials. Academic teaching adapted augmented reality and competency-based teaching to become important new modes of education delivery. Diagnostic services also required new policies and procedures to ensure the safety of personnel. Conclusions: As a by-product of the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional, face-to-face learning and clinical research were converted into online formats. An hybrid environment of traditional methods and novel technological tools has emerged in readiness for future pandemics that allows for virtual learning with concurrent recognition of the need to provide for interpersonal interactions.

To the Editor, The World Health Organization coronavirus data report that the COVID pandemic has resulted in over 280 million cumulative cases and surpassed 5 million deaths (as of the last week of December 2021) (WHO, n.d.). There has been a desperate global search for acute therapies that can prevent the spread of infection and/or the development of serious infection necessitating hospitalization. Considering the increasing trend of complementary and alternative medicine popularity on one hand (Aliasl et al., 2015; Daneshfard et al., 2019) and the unavailability of confirmed treatment regimens for COVID-19 on the other, application of herbal medicines in an integrative manner has been used from the very beginning of the pandemic.Black seed (Nigella sativa) is an annual flowering plant, the seeds of which have been used as a traditional remedy for infectious and inflammatory diseases for centuries (Fatima Shad et al., 2021). There is growing evidence of the potential role of its bioactive compounds, in particular thymoquinone (TQ), as a treatment for COVID-19