Effect of Crocus sativus and its active compounds for the treatment of several diseases: A review

The purpose of this article is to use literature search engines such as PubMed and SciFinder to locate scholarly journal articles pertaining saffron, its preparation, analysis, and its use in cancer treatments. Saffron comes from the dried red stigmas of the Crocus sativus L. flower. Along with its use in cooking and in traditional medicine, it has numerous applications as an antitoxic, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer agent, due to its secondary metabolites and their derivatives are safranal, crocins, crocetin and dymethyl-crocetin. This study demonstrate that Crocus sativus extract (CSE) and its major constituents, crocin, and crocetin, significantly inhibited the growth of certain cancer cells while not effecting normal cells. Crocus sativus L. extract should be investigated further as a viable agent in the treatment of prostate, pancreatic or other types of cancer.