Crocetin is an aglycon of carotenoid extracted by saffron stigmas (Crocus sativus L.) and known to have a potent anti-oxidative effect. Amyliod β (Aβ), hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, is reported to have neurotoxicity partly via oxidative stress. In this study, we investigated the effect of crocetin on hippocampal HT22 cell death induced by Aβ1-42. Furthermore, to clarify the mechanism underly...

Spices and herbs are known not only for their taste, aroma and flavour, but also for their medical properties and value. Both spices and herbs have been used for centuries in traditional medical systems to cure various kinds of illnesses such as common cold, diabetes, cough and cancers. The aim of this work was the comparison between two different extractive techniques in order to get qualitati...

objective(s):the present study reports the development and validation of a sensitive and rapid extraction method beside high performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of crocetin in human serum. materials and methods:the hplc method was carried out by using a c18 reversed-phase column and a mobile phase composed of methanol/water/acetic acid (85:14.5:0.5 v/v/v) at the flow...

objective(s):this study was designed to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of crocus sativus l. (saffron)aqueous extract and safranal, the major constituent of the essential oil of saffron, on lipid peroxidation, biochemical parameters and histopathological findings in isoproterenol (iso)-induced myocardial infarction in wistar rats. materials and methods:the saffron extract (20, 40, 80 and 1...

guaiacol peroxidases (gp) are haem-containing enzymes participating in many physiological processes in plants. the expression pattern of these enzymes is organ-specific and developmentally regulated. methods: the presence of gp activity in extract samples, prepared from crocus sativus l. corms that were either dormant or rooting for 3, 6 and 10 days, was investigated. results: kinetic studies r...

Gardenia jasminoides is used in traditional Chinese medicine and has drawn attention as a rich source of crocin, a compound with reported activity against various cancers, depression and cardiovascular disease. However, genetic information on the crocin biosynthetic pathway of G. jasminoides is scarce. In this study, we performed a transcriptome analysis of the leaves, green fruits, and red fru...

BACKGROUND Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a common but very expensive herbal medicine. As an important traditional medicine, it has an outstanding effect in treating irregular and painful menstruation. Recently, the over-demand tendency of saffron results in an unusual phenomenon in the medicinal markets. Adulterants and saffron-like substitutes are intentionally mixed into medicinal markets an...

OBJECTIVE Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory airways distinguished by edema and infiltration of inflammatory immune cells. To test our hypothesis about the anti-inflammatory effect of saffron, we examined effects of Crocus sativus (C. sativus) extract as a prophylactic anti-inflammatory agent in sensitized rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS To induce experimental asthma, rat...