Written by Joyce Smith, BS. Nigella sativa oil and acetaminophen were both effective in reducing osteoarthritic knee pain in the participating Iranian nursing home patients.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent joint disease and a leading source of chronic pain and disability in the United States 1 and other developed countries 2. Knee OA accounts for more than 80% of the total disease burden 2 and affects at least 19% of American adults aged 45 years and older 3.
Nigella sativa is a popular ingredient in Eastern medicine, and is a commonly used medicinal plant in South Asia and elsewhere 4. Many in vivo and in vitro studies have validated its analgesic, anti-spasm, and anti-inflammatory properties 5,6.
The objective of this crossover clinical trial was to investigate the effect of a topical application of Nigella sativa oil and oral acetaminophen on pain in 42 elderly patients with knee osteoarthritis who resided in a nursing home in Sabzevar City, Iran. Patients were randomized into two groups of 21 per group: Group 1 had one cc of Nigella sativa oil applied on each knee joint 3 times daily (every 8 hours) for one week while group 2 received 325 mg of acetaminophen orally 3 times daily (every 8 hours) for one week. The oil was consistently massaged for 5 minutes with the palm of the hand in a clockwise direction at the front and sides of the knee joint. This procedure was repeated in a crossover design following a one month washout. Pain was determined using a visual scale (VAS) before and after the first and second stages of the study. Treatment response was defined as a decrease in pain scores over 1.5 and data analysis was performed with an R software mixed model.
Forty elderly patients, consisting of 18 (45%) men and 22 (55%) women) with a mean year and weight of 75.66±8.9 years and 69.67±14.33 kg. respectively, completed the study. Pain intensity mean was 4.23+-0.31 for the Nigella sativa oil group and 4.76+-0.31 for the oral acetaminophen group. Both Nigella sativa oil and oral acetaminophen reduced knee pain in patients (p=0.0001); however, the R software mixed model showed that pain intensity relief was 0.53 higher in Nigella sativa oil compared to oral acetaminophen (p=0.01).
This study showed that topical use of Nigella sativa oil was more effective in reducing knee pain in elderly patients than low dose acetaminophen; however, the usual acetaminophen dose for chronic knee pain is 2-3 times higher than the dose used in this study. Furthermore, researchers did not control for a potential massage action of the oil (five minutes of massaging three times daily may have contributed to the pain-relieving benefit of the oil.) Additional studies involving longer time periods to establish the optimal dose are warranted.
Source: Kooshki, Akram, Reza Forouzan, Mohammad Hassan Rakhshani, and Maryam Mohammadi. “Effect of topical application of Nigella sativa oil and oral acetaminophen on pain in elderly with knee osteoarthritis: a crossover clinical trial.” Electronic physician 8, no. 11 (2016): 3193.
© 2016 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial- NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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Posted January 7, 2019.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
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