The effect of Nigella sativa on the risk of mortality in patients with COVID‐19: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized trials

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged the healthcare systems given the uncontrolled spread and high mortality rate of patients with severe course of illness. In addition, anger and frustration with the pandemic are widespread due to the negative impacts of COVID-19 on social, mental, and physical well-being.Therefore, the hunt for safe and effective treatment for COVID-19 should be continued to wipe out this deadly disease. To this end, supplemental herbal remedies are being investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19 due to their abundance of physiologically active components.Owing to its wide range of pharmacological actions, including its antiinflammatory, anti-viral, and immunomodulatory effects, Nigella sativa is specifically recommended as a possible phytomedicine for COVID-19 (Khazdair, Ghafari, & Sadeghi, 2021). It is a medicinal herb commonly referred to as "Black Cumin," and it is one of the most treasured nutrient-rich herbs in history worldwide. Even before the pandemic, N. sativa has been demonstrated to possess antiviral activities against a wide range of viruses (Koshak & Koshak, 2020). Also, by producing several cellular mediators and immunological responses to combat infections, N. sativa has been demonstrated to possess immunostimulant effects (Gholamnezhad, Boskabady, & Hosseini, 2014;Majdalawieh & Fayyad, 2015). In addition, by lowering proinflammatory mediators, N. sativa has also displayed antiinflammatory properties in inflammatory diseases (Bordoni et al., 2019;Hadi, Kheirouri, Alizadeh, Khabbazi, & Hosseini, 2016). Previously in this journal, the randomized trial reported by Karimi et al. (2021) showed N. sativa accelerated the clinical recovery of patients with COVID-19. Nevertheless, the ability of this herbal remedy to reduce the risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19 may have been overlooked. Several randomized trials have been performed to investigate the effects of N. sativa on mortality reduction in patients with COVID-19. We aimed to summarize their overall mortality benefits in a systematic review and meta-analysis. | METHODSThis systematic review was completed by adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement (Page et al., 2021). Two investigators (C.S.K. and S.S.H.) independently performed a systematic literature search with no language restriction in electronic databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and preprint servers (medRxiv, Research Square, SSRN), from inception until June 23, 2022, and conducted title and abstract screening and full-text screening to identify relevant studies involving only human subjects.

Nigella sativa for the treatment of COVID‐19 patients: A rapid systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Our results showing a mortality benefit with the use of N. sativa are consistent with the findings of prior studies (Kow et al., 2023 ). Our study extends and improves their results, first, by incorporating the results from the latest RCTs and second, by evaluating other key outcomes in addition to mortality.…”

“…Our results showing a mortality benefit with the use of N. sativa are consistent with the findings of prior studies (Kow et al, 2023).…”

“…According to a previous meta‐analysis, N. sativa has been found to reduce the risk of mortality in COVID‐19 patients; however, it did not evaluate other important clinical outcomes and did not include the most recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (Kow et al., 2023 ). In the current pandemic era, newer variants of COVID‐19 have been reported to be causing a milder disease and are associated with a low risk of mortality (Lorenzo‐Redondo et al., 2022 ).…”