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							| Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007



	

				
						
 
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																Functional Foods in Health and Disease - Online ISSN: 2160-3855; Print ISSN: 2378-7007
										

				


				
				
					
					
						
																					
				
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					Vol. 14 No. 9 (2024): September 2024
				
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									Research Articles
							
		



	
		  	 

		
	
		Antiviral activity of Nigella sativa oil against two SARS-CoV-2surrogates in vitro as a dietary product
	


	
	
		

							
					Authors

						
							
								Xiuping Jiang
							
																																		
	
							
								Jinge Huang
							
																																		
	
							
								Jingxue Wang
							
																																		


				
			
																	
					
												DOI:
					

					
						
							https://doi.org/10.31989/ffhd.v14i9.1411
						
					
				
			

						
										
					Abstract

					Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is primarily transmitted via aerosol and droplets, but environmental surfaces or potentially contaminated foods may contribute to further viral transmission. Nigella sativa seed (black cumin seed) oil possesses various biological activities against bacteria, fungi, parasites, or
viruses.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore black cumin seed oil (BSO) with anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities using bovine coronavirus (BCoV) and human coronavirus (HCoV) OC43 as surrogates.

Methods and Results: BSO was tested at 1-100 mL/L concentrations for cytotoxicity towards human rectal tumor (HRT-18G) cells and 0.1-10 mL/L for efficacy against BCoV and HCoV OC43 in suspension. Two coronaviruses were separately mixed with BSO suspension and incubated for various times (0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min) at 4, 23, and 37°C. The virus titer
reduction was determined by median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) assay with HRT-18G cells as the host. BSO concentrations of 1-20 mL/L exhibited low cytotoxicity (<10%) towards HRT-18G cells. The inactivation of coronaviruses by BSO was concentration-, temperature-, and exposure time-dependent. At 37°C, BSO reduced 2.0 logs of BCoV and
3.0 logs of HCoV OC43 in 60 min, respectively. Specifically, half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of BSO at 4, 23, and 37°C after the 1-h exposure was 4.28, 3.06, and 0.87 mL/L against BCoV, respectively, and 0.61, 0.61 and 0.48 mL/L against HCoV OC43, respectively. Moreover, BSO didn’t affect the attachment of BCoV and HCoV OC43 into host cells.

Conclusion: Our findings on the inhibition activity of BSO against SARS-CoV-2 surrogates suggested the potential use of this natural product in mitigating SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results also suggest that HCoV OC43 may be a more appropriate surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 to screen antiviral dietary products.

Keywords: Nigella sativa, SARS-CoV-2 surrogates, antiviral activity, quantitative suspension test, dietary supplement

				
			
			

						
																																	
						
		


		

						
										
					
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																			2024-09-16
																	

				
							

			
						
										

											
							
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									Vol. 14 No. 9 (2024): September 2024
								
							

						
					
											
							
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								Research Articles
							

						
					
									

			
						
										
					
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