Nigella Sativa was discovered in Tutankhamen's tomb, implying that it played an important role in ancient Egyptian practices. Although its exact role in Egyptian culture is not known, we do know that items entombed with a king were carefully selected to assist him in the afterline. The earliest written reference to black seed is found in the book of Isaih in the Old Testament. Isaih contrasts the reaping of black cumin with wheat: For the black cumin is not threshed with a rod (Isaish 28:25, 27 NKJV). Eastons Bible Dictionary clarifies that the Hebrew word for black cumin "Ketsah" refers to "without" doubt the Nigella Sativa, a small annual of the order Renunculaceae which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries, and is cultivated in Egypt and Syria for its seed. Discoredes, a Greek physician of the 1st Century A.D. recorded that black seeds were taken to treat Headaches, nasal congestion, toothache, and intestinal worms. They were also used, he reported, as a diuretic to promote menstruation and increase milk production in women. The Muslim scholar al-Biruni (973-1048), who composed a treatise on the early origins of Indian and Chinese drugs, mentions that the black seed is a kind of grain called alwanak in the sigzi dialect. Later, this was confirmed by Suhar Bakht who explained it to habbii-l-sajzi (viz. Sigzi grains). This reference to black seed as "grains" points to the seed's possible nutritional use during the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the Graco-Arab/Unani-Tibb system of medicine, which originated from Hippocrates, his Contemporary Galen and ibn Sina, black seed has been regarded as a valuable remedy in Hepatic and digestive disorders and has been described as a stimulant in a variety of conditions, ascribed to an imbalance of cold humors.