Can a spice change the health of the brain? New research seeser rivals reveal traditional drugs for mood and memory, if future studies confirm the results, offer hope for safe, natural remedies.

Review: From mood to memory: unlocked saffron capacity in brain healthImage Credit: New Africa / Shuttersk

With age, there is a risk of getting clinically depressed or worried. Older adults are also more likely to develop mild cognitive loss (MCI), which often moves forward for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). There are limited drug treatment options for these conditions. In addition, most available medicines serve slowly, produce small benefits, and adverse side effects.

A recent review article in the journal Curus Saffron describes a traditional spice and neuroprotective capacity of natural medicine.

Introduction

People’s age as neurodizonation and neurocycatric disturbances become more common. They create many disability, put a growing burden on carers, and increase the cost of large -scale health care. Depression and anxiety can be an early signs of developing neurodijneration or can help cause it to cause.

Saffron (Crocus sativus)) It is used as food and therapy in the Mediterranean Sea for South Asia, Persia and age. Now, however, its neuroprottive activity and anxiety and ability to prevent or counter depression are attracting attention. These effects are mediated by its major components, crocin, crosetin and safranal.

Saffron has many neuroprotective and mood-growing mechanisms. It regulates monominic neurotransmission including serotonin, dopamine, and norpenephrine, and prevents acetylcolinestrase. It increases antioxidant capacity and displays powerful Anti -inflammatory action. It also prevents the NLRP3 inflammasome route.

Despite promising clinical consequences supported by data on the mechanism of action, its clinical use is limited. Issues with its introduction include long-term use, non-standardized extracts, and lack of security data with a large extent irregular nature. For example, the concentration of the crocin and safranal shows a widespread variation, depending on the source of saffron, the season in which it was bitten, and the processing method was used. Insurance reimbursement and regulatory approval are also obstacles in widespread clinical use.

Study conclusion

The authors reviewed random controlled tests, systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Results show that saffron is associated with constant improvement in mild-to-medium depression, which is equal to traditional antidepressants of the first line such as fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reptek inhibitor (SSRI). Saffron is also well tolerated as an antidote drug, with mild adverse effects such as nausea, headaches, and appetite changes. Similar results were obtained when used in a group of heart disease, which underlines its suitability in people with comoridity. In a test, crocin (a major saffron component) was used as an assistant for SSRIS, which shows the adative antidepressant effect.

In individuals with cognitive loss (AD or MCI), saffron improved cognitive results, as much as standard drugs such as mementin or doczil. Medium-to-serious e. In patients with, changes were evaluated using severe cognitive cognitive loss rating scale (scirs) and functional assessment staging tools (fast), showing comparable improvements with both mementine and saffron. Adverse events were similar in both groups.

Importantly, saffron was administered to all cognitive tests at frequent doses of 30 mg/day, which adds value to findings. Thus, saffron can be a possible option for AD patients who cannot tolerate traditional drugs due to their side effects; However, the current evidence is insufficient to recommend its use as a replacement of standard remedies.

Task

Many studies have investigated the mechanism of saffron action, describing five different mechanisms.

Monomine neurotransmitter

Crocin and safranal stimulating monomine neurotransmitters regulate the levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norpenephrine. The increase in serotonin levels with saffron was comparable with fluoxetine, resulting in similar anti -seditious effects.

Gall bladder

Acetylcolinestrase is an enzyme that breaks the neurotransmitter acetylocoline in the synaptic fank. Saffron connects to the active site of this enzyme, prevents its activity and thus increases acetylocine concentrations. Therefore it is a similar mechanism of similar action as dopezil and rewustigmin. Since the lack of acetylocoline causes cognitive symptoms in AD, this discovery is important.

Antioxidant activity

Both crocin and crostin help to prevent neurodizonation and mood disorders through their powerful antioxidant effects. They reject reactive oxygen species and neutralize free radicals. They also reduce lipids peroxidation, causing a molecule associated with membrane lipid damage.

Saffron also increases antioxidant buffer molecules, such as supexide dysmutes and glutathion, which prevents oxidative stress.

Anti -inflammatory effect

Chronic lower grade Swelling And microglial activation is important for neurodogenative disease, causing neuronal injury to worsen functional. Micoglia centrals have immunity inflammatory cells Nervous system,

Saffron prevents several inflammatory routes, including atomic factor-cups B (NF-κB), TNF-α, IL-6 and factories such as factories. In two-dimensional defense, it inhibits the NLRP3 inflammasom route, increasing the transcription of the gene with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory activity.

synaptic plasticity

Crossin potentially controls the neurotoxic signaling tract such as glutamate-induced excessive stimulation. Its antioxidant effects prevent apoptosis. It also increases the level of brain-oriented neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which mediates synaptic plasticity and enhances learning and memory. Saffron bioactives promote neurogenesis from stem cells, helping to maintain cognitive reserve after neuronal injury. Paper emphasizes the need for future studies to include the reaction reaction, supports the exact medical approach.

conclusion

The attractive safety profile of saffron and natural origin are offset by its extremely high price and lack of regulatory approval. In particular, these studies were on all small scale, which were held in the brief period, and mainly from Iran. This underlines the need for more rigorous research.

Saffron can fill a gap in the market due to its versatile neurocognitive effects; However, its adoption is limited by high cost, lack of standardization and regulatory obstacles. However, there are significant intervals, such as standardization and dose need to adapt, and most importantly, to confirm long -term security. Future research should also focus on biomarker identity to enable personal treatment.

“If these challenges are addressed, saffron can infection with a traditional herbal remedy for an evidence-based auxiliary or option in the treatment of mood and cognitive disorders.” However, saffron should not yet replace the first row treatments, given the boundaries of existing evidence.