Abstract

These day depression is assumed being a very serious mental disorder, it can be one of the 10 leading disorders that cause disabilities and can affect up to 21% of the world till 2020.
Some side effects of anti-depressants are like: disability for car driving, dry mouth, the inability for sexual function so some patients are refusing for taking such drugs.
Thus, we feel a need for less toxic drugs, such as natural plants which can be used in the medical world.
There has been proven evidence of the important role of herbals in treating several disorders as well as psychiatric.

In this article, we will let you know about Saffran (Crocus Sativus) and its components (Crocin, Crocetin and…) effect on depression disorder.

Introduction:

Crocus sativus L. (Saffron) been cultivated in Iran and the usage is in the medical and food industry mainly. There are three main components called: Crocin C₄₄H₆₄O₂₄, Crocetin C₂₀H₂₄O₄, and Saffranal C₁₀H₂₆O.
Crocin is a water-soluble carotenoid, and one of the pharmacological active constituent of saffron.
Studies have shown the pharmacological benefits of saffron extract like anti-tumor, antioxidant, antinociceptive and cardioprotective.
In this article, we brought you a summary of two valuable experiments of the antidepressant effect of crocin, one of them was on animals and the other was on the human with depression disorder.

First, we take a quick look at animal experiment:

There were 30 rats included in this test and different dosages of crocin injected to them, through the different tests and experiments the results were showing antidepressants effect of crocin.
In conclusion, This study was shown that subacute usage of crocin has antidepressant effects in animals.
Crocin usage significantly cause an increase in the CREB, p-CREB, BDNF, and VGF protein expressions in the animal hippocampus
.For the detail information and methodology you can check reference 1 at the end of the article. Also, you can find table 1 useful.

**The effectiveness of Saffron and its constituents as a treatment for depression in animals.**

Constituents	animal	doses	results	reference
Aqueous and ethanolic extract	mice	(0.2–0.8 g/kg)	The aqueous and ethanolic extracts of stigma, reduced immobility time.	Hosseinzadeh et al., 2003
Aqueous and ethanolic extract, Crocin	mice	(50–600 mg/kg)	Reduced immobility time and increased swimming time.	Hosseinzadeh et al., 2003
Aqueous and ethanolic extract, Safranal	mice	(0.15–0.5 mL/kg)	Reduced immobility time and increased swimming time.	Hosseinzadeh et al., 2003
Kaempferol	mice	100 and 200 mg/kg	Reduced immobility behaviors	Hosseinzadeh et al., 2003

Now let’s take a more detailed look at the human experiment:

Material ‘:

The purpose of the study is proving Crocin effectiveness in curing mental disorder patients on a four-week clinical trial.
46 people were selected from one of the mental hospitals in Iran, Mashhad. Among these people, half of them given a placebo and the other half was treated with crocin. (for more details please check the reference no. 2)

There were two tablets using in this test, one placebo, and one Crocin. These tablets were on the same shape and colors.
These two groups were served with these for 4 continues week.
Then after they have been checked for the results And a few tests were taken from them to determine the change.
Table2
The effectiveness of Saffron and its constituents as a treatment for depression in a human.

Number of patients	Treatment	Time of treatment	Result	Reference
30	The stigma of C. sativus30 mg/day	6	The effect of a stigma of C. sativussimilar to imipramine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression	Akhondzadeh et al.,2004
40	The stigma of C. sativus30 mg/day	6	The outcome on the Hamilton depression rating scale Stigma of C. sativuscould produce a significantly better than the placebo	Akhondzadeh et al.,2004
40	The stigma of C. sativus30 mg/day	6	The effect of a stigma of C. sativussimilar to fluoxetine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression	Noorbala et al.,2005
40	The stigma of C. sativus30 mg/day	6	The outcome on the Hamilton depression rating scale Petal of C. sativuscould produce a significantly better than the placebo	Moshiri et al.,2006
40	Petal of C. sativus15 mg bid (morning and evening)	8	Petal of C. sativuswas found to be effectively similar to fluoxetine in The treatment of mild to moderate depression	AkhondzadehBasti et al., 2007
60	C. sativus40 and 80 mg/day+ fluoxetine (30 mg)	6	Was effective to treatment of mild to moderate depressive disorders	Moosavi et al., 2014

Discussion

All the patients who took part in this experiment received one SSRI each day such as sertraline, fluoxetine or citalopram. Ferguson and Murphy reported some side effects such as difficulty in breathing, urinary incontinency in using of SSRI antidepressant drugs. Thus, the reported side effects in our study can be attributed to the administration of SSRIs which has been considered by Mohamadpour et al of crocin in healthy volunteers. They were searching for the effects of Crocin tablets (20 mg per day for one month) on biochemical and such parameters in pre and post-treatment periods.

Conclusion

Through this experiment, there has been a usage of crocin tablet for proving the anti-depressant effects of SSRIs in the treatment of patients with depression. In this work, Crocin showed to be a particularly effective icon. Improvements in psychiatric tests which have mentioned above were the clinical relevance of the antidepressant effect of Crocin. These findings suggested that the anti-depressant effects of saffron extract can be a result of Crocin as the main antioxidant constituents in saffron stigmas (Crocus sativus). Although there is a compulsory need for getting to know exactly what this mechanism is.

References:

1: Antidepressant effects of crocin and its effects on transcript and protein levels of CREB, BDNF, and VGF in rat hippocampus
Faezeh Vahdati Hassani1, Vahideh Naseri1, Bibi Marjan Razavi2, Soghra Mehri3, Khalil Abnous4 and Hossein Hosseinzadeh3*

2: Crocin,the main active saffron constituents,as an adjunctive treatment in major depressive disorder:A randomized,double-blind, placebo-controlled, pilot clinical trial Ali Talaei a, Maryam Hassanpour Moghadam b, SayyedAbolghasemSajadiTabassi c, Seyed Ahmad Mohajeri b,n Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Research Center,Mashhad University o medical Sciences,Mashhad,Iran b Pharmaceutical Research Center,School of Pharmacy,Mashhad University of Medical Sciences,Mashhad,Iran c Targeted Drug Delivery Research Center,School of Pharmacy,Mashhad University of Medical Sciences,Mashhad,Iran

3: Amin B, Hosseinzadeh H: Evaluation of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of saffron, Crocus sativus L., and its constituents, safranal, and crocin in allodynia and hyperalgesia induced by chronic constriction injury model of neuropathic pain in rats. Fitoterapia 2012, 83:888–895.
4:. Hosseinzadeh H, Younesi HM: Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effects of Crocus sativus L. stigma and petal extracts in mice. BMC Pharmacol 2002, 2:7.
5:. Hosseinzadeh H, Ziaee T, Sadeghi A: The effect of saffron, Crocus sativus stigma, extract and its constituents, safranal and crocin on sexual behaviors in normal male rats. Phytomedicine 2008, 15:491–495.
6:. Hosseinzadeh H, Ghenaati J: Evaluation of the antitussive effect of stigma and petals of saffron (Crocus sativus) and its components, safranal and crocin in guinea pigs. Fitoterapia 2006, 77:446–448.
7:. Imenshahidi M, Hosseinzadeh H, Javadpour Y: Hypotensive effect of aqueous saffron extract (Crocus sativus L.) and its constituents, safranal and crocin, in normotensive and hypertensive rats. Phytother Res 2010, 24:990–994.
8: Abdullaev, FI.,2002. Cancer chemo prevention and tumoric dal properties of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Exp.Biol.Med.227,20–25. Adams, S., Penton-Voak,I., Harmer, CJ., Holmes, EA., Munafo, MR.,2013.
9: Effects of emotion recognition Training on mood among individuals with high levels of depressive symptoms: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.Trials 14,161–168. Agha-Hosseini, 10: M., Kashani,L., Aleyaseen, A., Ghoreishi, A., Rahmanpour, H., Zarrinara, AR., Akhondzadeh,S.,2008. Crocus sativus L. (saffron)in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome:a double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial.BJOG115,515–519.
10: Akhondzadeh, S., Tahmacebi-Pour, N., Noorbala, AA., Amini, H., Fallah-Pour, H., Jamshidi, AH., Khani, M.,2005. Crocus sativus L. inthetreatmentofmildto moderatedepressionadouble-blind,randomizedandplacebocontrolledtrial. Phytother.Res.19 148–151

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Crocin and anti-depressant effect