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...

We recently identified saffron cod Eleginus gracilis as a dominant fish species in nearshore habitats (<5 m deep, <20 m offshore) of western Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, USA. Saffron cod have not been previously reported in PWS, and their capture suggests that fish community structure has changed in nearshore habitats. Nearly 16 000 saffron cod were captured in 49 of 95 beach seine hauls...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to investigate immunotoxic effect of safranal (SAF), a main component of Crocus sativus essential oil, using Balb/c mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS SAF was administered intraperitoneally at doses of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 ml/kg for 3 weeks. Hystopathological examination of spleen and bone marrow, cellularity of spleen, delayed type of hypersensitivity (DTH) res...

From ancient times, saffron dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L. is widely used as a drug against different human diseases. In the beginning of 1990 ́s scientific literature reported for the first time the antitumor activity of saffron. During the last decade different laboratories of the world (including ours) have accumulated sufficient scientific evidence to suggest that saffron, and its main i...

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is now generally perceived to be the dominant operating system in conventional medicine. It is unsurprising then that some have counseled complementary and alternative medicine practitioners to resist EBM . The efficacy of medicinal herbs does need to be established and toxicity, contraindications and side effects also need to be investigated, and this is best done...

current therapies for breast cancer are often limited by short-term efficacy due to the emergence of drug resistance. there has been increased interest in the use of naturally occurring compounds with chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects in the treatment of cancers. saffron, dry stigmas crocus sativus l., used in iran as a spice, is known for its anticancer properties. in this study, th...

BACKGROUND Crocus sativus L. (saffron), which belongs to the Iridaceae family, is widely cultivated in Iran. Cardiovascular effects of saffron has been established in some studies but the effects of chronic administration of saffron (C. sativus) stigma aqueous extract on blood pressure has not been investigated. OBJECTIVES In this study the effects of saffron (C. sativus) stigma aqueous extra...