BACKGROUND Due to safety concerns and side effects of many antidepressant medications, herbal psychopharmacology research has increased, and herbal remedies are becoming increasingly popular as alternatives to prescribed medications for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). Of these, accumulating trials reveal positive effects of the spice saffron (Crocus sativus L.) for the treatme...

The ornamental and medicinal saffron with high economic value encompasses a great share of non-oil exports in Iran. As a result, identification of suitable areas for saffron cultivation in Ardabil province located in northwestern part of Iran necessitate effective planning for expanding cultivation and production of this product. Given the effect of various environmental factors on growth and y...

Saffron is a spice obtained from the dried stigmas of the purple-flowered saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.). The determination of the water content in saffron is very important in order to establish its microbiological stability and consequently to determine the commercial value. The average moisture content in dried saffron powder ranges between 10-12% causing a slow degradation of the produc...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of saffron as a natural sunscreen and moisturizer. The pollens of the saffron were dried and powdered in a grinder. The experimental formulations included a homosalate (8%) lotion reference, lotions with 2, 4 and 8% of grinded saffron, and the control lotion base without saffron. The lotions containing saffron were prepared like homosal...

Better irrigation management and more efficient management of crop production require modeling of plant growth and crop yield. More applicable models are usually simple and requires less and accessible inputs. The objective of this study was to develop a model for growth and yield prediction of saffron under various irrigation regimes. In this modeling soil water budget and other simple rel...

To develop saffron planting in Urmia, West Azerbaijan, Iran, a split-split plot experiment based on CRBD was carried out in the Urmia University's research farm for two years (2013-14). Nanofertilizers (Fe, P, K and nofertilizer (control)) as main plots, saffron ecotypes (Mashhad, Torbat-Heydarieh, Torbat-jam, Gonabad, Ghaen and Birjand) as subplots and maternal corm weight (6, 8, 10 and 12 g) ...

Worldwide, lung cancer is the most common form of cancer. Saffron has been used in folk medicine for centuries. We investigated the potential of saffron to induce cytotoxic and apoptotic effects in lung cancer cells (A549). We also examined the caspase-dependent pathways activation of saffron-induced apoptosis against the A549 cells. A549 cells were incubated with different concentrations of sa...

OBJECTIVES Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of spinal cord is leading to the paraplegia observed. In this study, we investigated the protective effect of the saffron extract on spinal cord I/R injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty five male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups: intact, sham surgery, normal saline (NS), low dose saffron aqua extract, high dose saffron aqua extract. ...

More and more saffron has been cultivated in China because of the increasing saffron demand, but no paper has studied the influence of drying methods on the quality of Chinese saffron. In this paper, three different dehydration treatments applied in actual production were evaluated: dehydration with electric oven, vacuum oven, and microwave. We determined that the highest quality of saffron wil...

BACKGROUND Crocus sativus, known as saffron crocus, is best known for the spice saffron. Saffron use spans more than 3500 years, however, its toxicity on neonates during lactation has not yet evaluated. OBJECTIVES This study was aimed to examine the acute toxicity of saffron on adult mice and its nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity on neonates of lactating mothers that used saffron during lacta...