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Neuroprotective Activities of Saffron and Crocin

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The Benefits of Natural Products for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Part of the book series: Advances in Neurobiology ((NEUROBIOL,volume 12))

Abstract

We first considered that saffron is really safety food because it has a long-use history. The neuroprotective activities of saffron and its major constituent, crocin, are separately discussed in vitro and in vivo. We reviewed the inhibitory activities of crocin against PC-12 cell apoptosis. The oxidative stress decreased the cellular levels of glutathione (GSH) which is an inhibitor of neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase). Therefore, the level of GSH was assayed by the addition of crocin resulted in the activation of glutathione reductase (GR). It became evident that crocin treatment prevents the N-SMase activation resulting in the decrease of ceramide release. From these evidences we summarized the role of crocin for neuronal cell death. We used the ethanol-blocking assay system for learning and memory activities. The effect of saffron and crocin on improving ethanol-induced impairment of learning behaviors of mice in passive avoidance tasks has been clear. Further, we did make clear that saffron and crocin prevent the inhibitory effect of ethanol on long-term potentiation (LTP) in the dentate gyrus. Finally we found that 100 mg/kg of crocin gave non-rapid eye movement sleep (non-REM sleep) although mice were started to be active during night time.

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28383-8_24

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Abbreviations

DMEM:

Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

FB1:

Fumonisin B1

c-GCS:

c-Glutamylcysteinyl synthase

GPx:

Glutathione peroxidase

GR:

Glutathione reductase

GSH:

Glutathione

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

JNK:

c-Jun kinase

LTP:

Long-term potentiation

MAb:

Monoclonal antibody

NGF:

Nerve growth factor

NMDA:

N-Methyl-d-aspartate

Non-REM sleeping:

Non-rapid eye movement sleep

N-Smase:

Neutral sphingomyelinase

PS:

Phosphatidylserine

SAPK:

Stress-activated protein kinase

SD:

Step-down

SM:

Sphingomyelin

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

ST:

Step through

TNF-a:

Tumor necrosis factor

TCM:

Traditional Chinese medicine

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Shinji Soeda

  2. International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, Tsukuba University, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kosuke Aritake & Yoshihiro Urade

  3. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Nagasaki International University, Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan

    Hiroshi Sato & Yukihiro Shoyama

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  1. Shinji Soeda
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  2. Kosuke Aritake
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  3. Yoshihiro Urade
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  4. Hiroshi Sato
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  5. Yukihiro Shoyama
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Correspondence to Yukihiro Shoyama .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Food Science and Nutrition College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman

    M. Mohamed Essa

  2. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Mohammed Akbar

  3. Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Gilles Guillemin

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Soeda, S., Aritake, K., Urade, Y., Sato, H., Shoyama, Y. (2016). Neuroprotective Activities of Saffron and Crocin. In: Essa, M., Akbar, M., Guillemin, G. (eds) The Benefits of Natural Products for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Advances in Neurobiology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28383-8_14

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