Crocetin Induces Cytotoxicity Via p53-independent Mechanisms

Cancer continues to represent the largest cause of mortality in the world and claims over 6 million lives each year (Abdullaev et al., 2000). An extremely promising strategy for cancer prevention today is chemoprevention, which is defined as the use of synthetic or natural agents (alone or in combination) to block the development of cancer in human beings (Abdullaev et al., 2004).It is a hotspot for cancer chemopreventive drug research to look for safe and effective antitumor drugs from plants, vegetables, herbs. Saffron is a naturally derived plant product from the dried stigma of the Crocus sativus flower (family Iridaceae) that may have biologically useful properties. In fact, saffron extract and its biologically active compounds, including crocin, crocetin, carotene, and safranal, have been shown both in vitro and in vivo to possess antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and memoryimproving properties (Abdullaev et al., 2002; Abdullaev et al., 2004; Das et al., 2010). Crocetin (8, 8-diapo-8, 8-carotenoic acid), which is the major ingredient of saffron that is responsible for its coloring property, is a lowmolecular-weight carotenoid compound characterized by a diterpenic and symmetrical structure with seven double bonds and four methyl groups. This compound exhibits antioxidant (Kanakis et al., 2009; Ordoudi et al ., 2009),