Comparison the analgesic activity of watery suspension of Nigella sativa Linn. seeds with Naproxen in mice

The present study was designed to investigated the antinociceptive effect of the watery suspension of Nigella sativa seeds compared with that of Naproxen by using hot plate test, which mainly measures the threshold of stimulus required to elicit a response , in mice at 30, 60, 90, 120 minutes after administration of the test agents. Twenty four albino Swiss mice of either sex were divided in four groups with (6) animals each, the first group was treated orally with 1000 mg/kg BW of watery suspension of Nigella seeds, the second group was treated orally with naproxen at dose of 500 mg/kg BW ,the third group drenched with 500mg/kg BW of watery suspension of Nigella seeds and 250 mg/kg BW of naproxen ,whereas the last group serve as control. Nigella sativa seeds suspension significantly (p<0.05) prolonged the latency of response at all posttreatment observation times (30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes) , the analgesic action of naproxen was diminished with time compared with Nigella seeds.Combination of equal amounts of Nigella seeds and Naproxen (half the originally used doses) caused significant increment (p<0.05) of analgesic reaction time longer than shown by each agent when given alone indicating an obvious synergistic effect between watery suspension of Nigella seeds and Naproxen.