Saffron:a potential immunological adjuvant in anti-tumor therapy / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

ABSTRACT

A large and increasing number of patients in the world use medicinal plants and herbs for health purposes.Especially,chemoprevention using readily available natural substances from vege-tables,fruits,herbs and spices is one of the significantly important approaches for cancer prevention in the present era. Saffron is native to Iran and now recorded in "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" as a widely used Chinese medicine with good safety. Other than several useful pharmacological effects such as anticonvulsant, antidepressant, anti-inflammation, saffron and its active components (crocin, crocetin and safranal)have been shown to induce apoptosis in several tumor cell lines and mouse tumors with beneficial properties including radical scavenging, anti-mutagenic and immuno-modulating effects. In addition,saffron was reported good potential to alleviate the toxicity ofcisplatin,including the nephrotox-icity.However,the application of these components in the clinic has been limited due poor clinical trials data. This review aimed to provide a brief overview on clinical evaluation for anti-tumor potential and current molecule mechanism of saffron based on recent literature data.