12^th World Pharma Congress

We confirmed that crocin prevented N-SMase activation, ceramide production and JNK phosphorylation. Exploration of the crocin’s preventive mechanism in oxidative stress-induced cell death revealed that the activities of GSH reductase. These results strongly support the importance of the proposed GSH-dependent inhibitory mechanism in oxidative stress-mediated cell death. The effects of saffron extract and crocin on improving ethanol-induced impairment of learning behaviors of mice in passive avoidance tasks has been reported. Based on these results, it became evident that saffron extract and crocin prevent the inhibitory effect of ethanol on Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) in the denatate gyrus in vivo. We examined the sleep-promoting activity of crocin by monitoring the locomotor activity and electroencephalogram after administration of crocin to mice. Crocin (30 and 100 mg/kg) increased the total time of non-REM sleep by 60 and 170%, respectively, during a 4-h period from 20:00 to 24:00 after its intraperitoneal administration at a lights-off time on 20:00. Furthermore, the anti-cancer activities against colon cancer cell lines, skin and colon cancers in mice are also discussed.