EC Nutrition

Background: Black seed oil (Nigella sativa) has a long history of traditional use as a tonic for vitality and resilience, and modern research supports roles in inflammatory balance, metabolic health, immune function, and stress physiology. Prior clinical work has focused primarily on clinical populations or highly stressed cohorts.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of a proprietary and patented black seed oil (P-BSO) supplementation on endocrine stress markers, sleep quality, and subjective vitality in moderately stressed but otherwise healthy adults.

Methods: In this 8-week randomized, placebo-controlled study, participants received either black seed oil (ThymoQuin^®, TriNutra) or placebo. Outcomes assessed at baseline and week 8 included salivary cortisol, salivary dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), the DHEA:cortisol ratio, Profile of Mood States (POMS) Vigor, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and a composite Stress Resilience Index (SRI).

Results: Black seed oil (P-BSO) supplementation produced coordinated improvements across endocrine, psychological, and sleep domains, including reductions in cortisol, increases in DHEA, improvements in the DHEA:cortisol ratio, higher vigor, and improved sleep quality. While not all individual endpoints reached statistical significance, the direction and magnitude of change were consistently favorable in the P-BSO group relative to placebo, resulting in a clear improvement in the composite SRI.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that black seed oil, particularly a standardized thymoquinone-rich low-FFA preparation (ThymoQuin^®), supports stress resilience through gradual recalibration of stress physiology. Black seed oil may be considered an ancient adaptogen for modern stress-related challenges.

Keywords: Nigella sativa; Patented Black Seed Oil (P-BSO); Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA); Profile of Mood States (POMS); Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Stress Resilience Index (SRI)

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