1 Globally, over a half million women die annually from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. In the developing world, postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) accounts for up to half of all maternal deaths. The wife of the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan of India, Empress Mumtaz, had 14 children and died after her last childbirth of PPH in 1630. So great was the Emperor’s love for his wife that he built t...

Black Seed The date and location of domestication of Nigella sativa is not clearly established, but the plant was certainly under wide cultivation more than 3000 years ago, when it was placed in the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun. Historical evidence also shows contemporaneous, or earlier, black seed cultivation in Jordan and Iraq. In addition, wild types of Nigella sativa grow in Turkey, Sy...

with it whenever I got opportunity. Again, I saw an interesting column in the December 1922 copy of the Indian Medical Gazette, p. 474, about the use of essential oils in cholera cases. Later on, I also found an interesting article in the June 1923 issue of the Indian Mcdical Gazette, p. 257, by Dr. Tomb which gives a very suitable method of administering these oils. Then again I came across an...