A short post to follow up on the topic of muscle loss (sarcopenia). I mentioned that there are natural substances that affect myostatin, a protein from the TGF-β superfamily that inhibits muscle growth. Sulforaphane from broccoli may be one of these substances . However, I once came across an article by bioinformaticians who were screening natural compounds for myostatin receptor binding properties. I learned from them that a substance from black cumin (Nigella sativa) has these properties. This substance is dithymoquinone.
The study created a phytochemical library consisting of approximately 2,000 compounds derived from various traditional medicinal plants. These compounds were primarily drawn from published disease-specific studies and screened for potential anti-MSTN (myostatin) agents. For analysis, the compounds were retrieved from the PubChem database.
Based on the modeling results (PatchDock, GROMACS, and others 
), the four best compounds were selected based on their drug-like properties. Of these four compounds, dithymoquinone had the highest binding free energy (-7.40 kcal/mol). As a result, dithymoquinone was found to be the most potent myostatin inhibitor.
Of course, these aren't in vivo studies, but they are an important first step in the search for therapeutic properties. What's also interesting is that this substance is believed to have antiviral properties. Links to the studies are below.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8440700/
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Dithymoquinone
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8434277/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045206821009652
