For the last two weeks, I have been keeping myself occupied with a side project I had assigned myself.
Black cumin seeds are known in my religion, Islam, as the seeds which can cure anything besides death. As a child, being told such things with the addition to "because God said so" or "because It's in the bible/Quran" meant you should believe it by default. However, I now have the means to try if it has an effect. Granted I don't have access to a virus or a cancer cell, but I have something that could be as exciting; I have cultures of bacteria! Okay, maybe not that exciting. But it is something to see how effective the seed is. I was going to go through the process of boiling the seed in water, but I found some cold compressed oil made of 100% black cumin seeds making the experiment easier.
I picked three kinds of bacteria to work with from toughest to treat to simplest. I decided to work with Bacillus subtilis (toughest), S. aureus (intermediate), and E. coli (simplest). However, my sample bacteria were not growing so I decided to work with an already cultured bacteria I found from the water filter at home.
After streaking on a Kerby Bauer plate, then placing sterile disks in the oil, I placed the damp disk on the plate. I then parafilmed the plate and left it to incubate overnight. The next day, the results were staggering! The zone of inhibition, which is the zone where there was no growth of bacteria, showing the effectiveness of the oil, was enormous!
The three bacteria were treated with the oil as well but had relatively smaller zones of inhibition. Nonetheless, we should acknowledge that this oil had an effect on an endospore-forming bacteria, Bacillus subtilis. The chances of it working on other forms of bacteria are high. Pictures of Kirby Bauer plates of the three bacteria shall be uploaded next week.
Moreover, I'm not the only one who's interested in black cumin seed and its benefits. Apparently, research has shown that black cumin seed and its derivatives have antibacterial, antiviral, anti-fungal and anti-cancer properties.
so, maybe, the blackest of them all could have saved Cinderella instead of the prince?
Additional information for the curious:
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252704/
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3642442/
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583426/
-https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/study-of-antimicrobial-activity-of-black-cumin-seeds-nigella-sativa-lagainst-salmonella-typhi-in-vitro-.php?aid=73188
The small yet interesting research you performed looks quite exciting, Naya! What came to mind for you to want to carry this research? I have never thought about such remedies, let alone to carry tests on them. You clearly did a fantastic, clean and efficient job to get results that were quite impressive!
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ReplyDeleteHey Naya, I really enjoyed reading about the side experiment you performed! I have one question though, you picked three bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, S. aureus, and E. coli) but they would not grow, would this have attributed to a specific factor such as temperature or maybe exposure to too much light? This was a well done and incredibly interesting side project! The results really are shocking, who new something so simple as cumin seeds could have such an enormous effect.
ReplyDeleteNaya,
ReplyDeleteI really like how are you using science to test a belief among your culture. This side project is extremely interesting! I'm wondering what are your next steps for this project? I find it fascinating that the Earth provides us with so many beneficial substances that can help people out.
Keep up the great work Naya, you are definitely an inspiration!