Recently a group of young researchers of the Department of Pharmacy, University of Asia Pacific, led by Mr. Muhammad Shahdaat Bin Sayeed, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy has published their discovery of a noble cognitive enhancer in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Elsevier) that has been able to attract attention of international communities across the globe.
This work has been referred in MDlinx (a specialty site that works
from a list of psychiatry journals judged by expert physician readers to be the
most important sources of articles for practicing physicians), GreenMedInfos
(the world's most widely referenced, open accessed, natural medicine database)
and several other influential referenced sites.
American Health Life-style magazine, Prevention (one of the largest
magazines in the world, with a 2.8 million circulation, editions around the
world, and over 10 million readers a month) has interviewed Muhammad Shahdaat
Bin Sayeed and featured this invention in its October, 2013 issue. He also
received Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Early Career award to
present this research in the "International Conference on Natural Products
and Health 2013, Singapore.
Initially the study aimed at finding a noble cognitive enhancer
from traditional sources and finally devised an inventive way of preparing a
neutraceutical made of black seed (kaligira in Bengali or Nigella sativa L.) prepared with a special manner with the aid of
modern pharmaceutical tools. The experimental studies on healthy men in their
50s tested markedly better on measures of memory, attention, and cognition than
placebo-popping counterparts. The research group developed customized neurophyschological
testing module for Bangladeshi population and applied this module for testing
memory, attention and cognition. The more complex a task was more significant
difference was observed. However, heart, liver, and kidney function was
unaffected by black seed preparation in the brief study period, joining other
clinical trials that have declared black cumin safe for humans.
The inventors attributed black cumin’s antioxidant,
anti-inflammatory, and neuron-protecting properties for the apparent brain-boosting
results. The study claims that the black seed preparation might not increase
memory in young people but it can slow the progression neurodegenerative
diseases like Alzheimer’s disease in elderly people through putting the brakes
on the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which is a
well-established pharmaceutical method for improving memory. Additionally this
preparation is superior to the fact that it is made of food supplement, not of
any synthetic drug what normally accompanies several side effects. This
preparation is likely to be available in the market of Bangladesh very soon.
