The Wonderful Elixir That is Black Seed Oil

By Changmoh • Wednesday, 15 May 2013 • Beauty, Health & Fitness

I’ve got a hacking cough at the moment and am feeling pretty sorry for myself (deliciously hot buttered white toast stuffing session justified then). Not only do I feel awful, I sound it too.

I’d never even heard of Black Seed Oil before last week but have recently been told by several people out here that it’s an Asian homeopathic wonder oil, good for respiratory ails as well as a bunch of other things including (rather alarmingly in my case as I’d hoped those days were behind me) increased breast milk production. Talk about diverse!

It can also be used as a kind of ointment to rub on aches and pains, rashes…and so the list goes on.

Made only from cold pressed nigella seeds (I love a good blob of arnica as much as the next person but I can’t help feeling slightly skeptical about whether or not all this stuff really works) I thought it was at least worth a try on the basis that whatever I was currently taking wasn’t making any difference.

For something that’s meant to be well known throughout Asia it was almost impossible to find. No one I spoke to had heard of it: pharmacists even looked blank.

Feeling somewhat disheartened, I found out online that it was popular in India. Ah ha. Little India – or to be more precise – Mustafa to the rescue.

I love this shop, which sells everything you can think of (what other store sees people leaving with such wonderfully random selections of things? A TV, a pot of humous and a hairband is a positively normal checkout here). The key to survival in this monolith though is to judge your arrival time, otherwise is can be unbearable.

I hit it at 9am one weekday morning and roamed around an empty shop (it also gets extra points for being, practically, the only place in Singapore that’s open at this time).

After much enquiring and explaining I found a bottle of the black stuff nestling in the far left hand corner near the pharmacy section (if you’re going…look for this stand, below).

And I am pleased to say…it’s a new addition to the medicine cabinet: I am not lactating and my cough really seems to have stopped. For the princely sum of $12.50 I’m on the mend and I’m sure it’s down to the peppery-tasting wonder oil.