As a recipe ingredient, saffron's golden color and bright flavor and aroma make it one of the world's most popular seasoning agents. It's also one of the costliest, collected from the stigmas and style of the flowering plant Crocus sativus, which is native to southwest Asia. In addition to its culinary qualifications, saffron has long been attributed medicinal properties as well. These include antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antihistamine and memory-boosting effects. Modern research has provided scientific evidence to support several of these curative assets, and particular attention has been given recently to saffron's anticancer abilities. Studies have confirmed that saffron can interfere with cancer during initiation and progression and that it has antitumorigenic and proapoptotic activity. Now, a group led by Amr Amin (United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain), including colleagues at Tawam Hospital (Al Ain, United Arab Emirates) and Cairo University (Egypt), reports that saffron can prevent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a rat model of the disease.

HCC ranks fifth in incidence and third in mortality among cancers worldwide. It can be caused by infection with hepatitis B or C or by exposure to environmental carcinogens, among other triggers. It can be modeled for research purposes in rats by exposing them to diethylnitrosamine (DEN), a relatively common environmental carcinogen. Because treatment options for HCC are very limited, research has focused on strategies to prevent its development.

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In Amin's study, rats were exposed to DEN and to various concentrations of saffron extract, and development of HCC was monitored (Hepatology 54, 857–867; 2011). Rats that received saffron had significantly fewer liver nodules than untreated rats, with those receiving the highest saffron doses showing complete inhibition of nodule development. Saffron-treated rats also had lower concentrations of proteins that indicate liver damage, lower levels of cellular markers of cancer development and progression, and greater numbers of apoptotic cells in the liver. Saffron seemed to inhibit proliferation, upregulate apoptosis and have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in DEN-exposed rats, all leading to protection against HCC carcinogenesis.

“With limited treatment options, approaches that prevent cancer development are among the best strategies to protect against the disease,” said Amin in a press release. He continued, “Our findings suggest that saffron provides an anticancer protective effect by promoting cell death (apoptosis), inhibiting proliferation of cancerous cells, and blocking inflammation. Further investigation of saffron extract and its mechanism of action in HCC is currently underway.”