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Nigella sativa: Where to Find the Best Black Seeds
Perhaps you have already heard of the health benefits of black cumin (Nigella sativa) and would like to try it for yourself. Or perhaps your naturopathic doctor recommended that you add black cumin oil to your diet. Whatever brought you here, it is important to understand that not all black cumin is produced the same way. We will tell you why this is and what you need to look for to make sure you are buying a quality product.
The source matters
With most seeds and seed oil products, such as sunflower oil, we usually don't think about where they come from. You buy sunflower oil and probably didn't know that the best sunflower oil is produced in Ukraine. The sunflower fields have a deep yellow color and are depicted on the national flag. You use it for cooking and don't expect any special benefits from it. It's quite different with black seeds, which offer many health benefits. You need to know where the seeds come from and choose the best ones.
How can you tell which black seeds are the best?
The Nigella sativa seeds used in large quantities for oil production come from various countries in and around the Mediterranean region and Asia. The largest producers by volume include Turkey, Syria, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. Other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, and others grow the seeds for the local market as a spice.
BioNatal LLC, together with 'On The Radar' (Radar Plus Supplements), conducted studies between 2020 and 2021 to determine which Nigella sativa seeds are the best in the world. The most important minerals in the studies were the thymoquinone content and the total volatile oils in the seeds. Ethiopian black cumin took first place unchallenged by a large margin. Ethiopian Nigella sativa seeds showed a superiority of 4 to 40 times compared to seeds of other origins!
Why are BioNatal Nigella sativa seeds the best in their class?
BioNatal Ethiopian Nigella sativa seeds showed the best results in studies and laboratory analyses. The turning point was 2022, when BioNatal LLC received additional information from US farmers about the unique conditions required to produce the highest thymoquinone levels. This information related to the altitude of the farmland and its distance from the equator. Using this information, we identified farms in Ethiopia that perfectly met these conditions and requested seed samples. Today, we are proud to announce that we discovered the highest thymoquinone content of 4.64% in the Nigella sativa seeds from these samples.
