A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Garlic, Elderberry and Black Seed Extract on the Immune System in Mice

The herbs garlic, elderberry, black seed have acknowledged therapeutic use in traditional medicine. With their immune-effective compounds, they are of much application in the traditional treatment of infections, the present study attempts a comparative investigation of the roles of the aforementioned herbs in the immune system and blood proteins. In this study, the mice of the Balb/C genus were divided into four groups: control, 1, 2 and 3. Each of these received 50, 100, 200 mg kg -1 of garlic, elderberry and black seed extracts, respectively. The extract was injected using the Inner Peritoneum (IP) Method every other day for 20 days. At the end of the experiments, blood samples were taken to conduct a count of white blood cells and an electrophoresis of blood proteins. The results were evaluated through SPSS at a p<0.05 level. The analysis indicates that black seed and garlic extract were able to increase the number of white blood cells. While black seed gave rise to the amount of white blood cells and also caused the albumin, alpha 1 and 2 proteins and the A/G ratio to increase, garlic was effective in raising alpha 1 and gamma globulin levels. This is in contrast with elderberry which plays a significant role in decreasing the gamma protein's density. The two herbs, garlic and black seed, impressed the immune system through changing the density of such blood proteins albumin, alpha 1 and 2 and altering the number of white blood cells whereas the result suggest no significant effect in the case of elderberry.