Thymoquinone and Potency

Ethiopian Black Seeds

At the beginning of the 21st century, analyzes showed that, depending on the region where the Nigella Sativa flower was cultivated, the strength and effectiveness of black cumin seed oil can be very different. It turned out that the most massive black seed oil in the world is very weak. About 90% of the black cumin oils that you can buy anywhere in the world have almost zero levels of the most important components.

Since 2015, the founders of BioNatal have been producing oil only from Ethiopian black seeds. As a result of several years of work, we received oil from different seeds and realized that the Ethiopian ones are the best. It remains only to prove the superiority of these seeds on a scientific level. Since 2020, we have started research.

As stated in the article: The Truth About Black Seeds in the World, we found that only seven countries in the world provide Nigella Sativa seeds in large quantities to produce natural oil. For more information on Nigella Sativa seeds in the world, and why there are only seven of them, please read the article here.

Oil Blends

There are also many blended oils on the market. We also talked about this in the article about black cumin seeds in the world: The Truth About Black Seeds in the World. Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and even India, mix different seeds. Cheap, massive, weak black seeds are mixed with Ethiopian. In this way, companies reduce the cost of the product, increase the bitterness and darken the color of the oil. There are a lot of these oils on the market and there is no point in researching them, since they are second-rate products.

BioNatal has collected the best Nigella Sativa seeds from the best growers in all seven countries for independent research. At the BioNatal factory in Texas, we extracted oil from these seeds. After that, from 2020 to 2021, we researched these natural oils in a California laboratory.

The main components of black cumin oil:

• Thymoquinone (main component)
• Thymohydroquinone
• Thymol
• Nigellon
• Sum of all Volatile Oils

Component Analyses

The results of the analyses showed that the amount of all components is proportional. This means that the weakest oil has the lowest levels and the strongest oil has the highest levels of all components. We will not provide the results of all components from commercial purposes in order not to be used by our competitors. Thus, we will focus only on the main and most famous component: Thymoquinone.

The level of Thymoquinone in all black seed oils in the world:

• Ethiopia - up to 4.64%
• Bangladesh - up to 1.33%
• Egypt - up to 1.15%
• India - up to 0.5%
• Turkey - up to 0.45%
• Syria - up to 0.25%
• Pakistan - up to 0.12%

Some companies deceive buyers and indicate on the labels the overestimated values of the main components of black cumin oil. Other companies do not list the values of the main components at all, because they know that these components are almost absent in their oil. Therefore, most people in the world use black cumin oil, but do not know anything about these components.

It also became clear that the color of the oil does not matter and it is impossible to determine the level of the main components by color, as previously thought. We must not forget that the more oil, the darker it seems. In a teaspoon, the difference is almost invisible. Thus, for comparison, we took 125 ml of natural oil.

The color of real black seed oil in a cup 125 ml:

• Ethiopia - black
• Bangladesh - hazy brown
• Egypt - golden
• India - dark brown
• Turkey - bright yellow
• Syria - hazy light brown
• Pakistan – brown

Results of the Analyses

As we can see, Ethiopian oil is the strongest and the difference in benefits over other black cumin oils is huge. This is the reason why BioNatal produces Ethiopian Black Seed Oil. Be careful because due to the high prices of Ethiopian Nigella Sativa seeds, the world market is mainly blending the Ethiopian oil. At BioNatal we guarantee you will always buy the 100% Ethiopian black seed oil.

You can also buy Egyptian oil, as it is the only black seed oil in the world that has a pleasant floral taste and smell. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find unblended Egyptian oil, as the Nigella Sativa seed crop in Egypt is very small and the Egyptians sell oil from Syrian seeds, not Egyptian ones. This is why buying from BioNatal guarantees you get what you need.

Other Important Factors Affecting the Quality of Black Seed Oil

We have found that there are also regions in Ethiopia where Nigella Sativa seeds produce lower levels of the main component. This is made possible by the fact that BioNatal analyzes all seed shipments that come to the U.S. from Ethiopia. We compared black cumin seed oil from different seed farms in Ethiopia. It turned out that, in Ethiopia, most regions produce seeds with a Thymoquinone level of only 2%. This is more than the level of seeds from other countries, but two times less than the level of the best and strongest Ethiopian seeds. When you buy BioNatal black seed oil, you are guaranteed to get a product from the best seeds in the world.

And finally, the last and very important factor is the sanitary conditions of manufacturers in the Middle and Far East, as well as the temperature of oil extraction and number of times the seeds are pressed. All black seed oils are cold-pressed, but more than half of the oils actually contain burning materials that are characteristic of hot-pressing. You will read about this in other sections of our blog.