Researchers have found that administering black cumin oil can restore changes to laboratory rates in kidney blood flow and kidney dysfunction caused by induced diabetes.

The study by researchers from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand was published in the December issue of the Journal of Experimental Pharmacology.

The study’s authors said that while it has been previously noted that black cumin treatment has been linked to improvement of renal dysfunction in nephrotoxic rats, the effect of the treatment on renal dysfunction in diabetes mellitus has not been clarified.

Method

Four groups of seven rats each were tested for a period of eight weeks, receiving the oil orally at the dose of 100 mg/kg of body weight.

The first group included normal rats given tap water. The second group included normal rats administered with black cumin oil. The third group included diabetic rats given only tap water. The fourth group was rats with diabetes induced by the toxic chemical streptozotocin that were administered with black cumin.

Results

Changes in the diabetic rats administered with black cumin oil included an “increase in terms of glomerular filtration rate, effective renal plasma flow, and effective renal blood flow.” Renal vascular resistance and filtration fraction were decreased compared to rates given only water.