Saffron supplements help improve symptoms of ulcerative colitis

Use of saffron (Crocus Sativus) as an alternative or supplemental treatment for ulcerative colitis (UC) leads to improvements in clinical response for faecal calprotectin and in partial Mayo scores, according to a study presented at the recently concluded 2022 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress.

“We observed significant improvement in patient’s symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and rectal bleeding,” the researchers said. “Therefore, using saffron supplements, along with conventional medicines, may have beneficial impacts on UC patients and reduce the need for immunosuppressants.”

Lead researcher Hassan Ashktorab and colleagues conducted an open-label single-centre pilot study at Howard University in Washington, DC, in the US to determine whether saffron as an additional intervention could improve clinical manifestations of UC through its anti-inflammatory and antireactive oxygen species properties.

Three UC patients in remission with mild-to-moderate disease received saffron 50 mg twice daily for 8 weeks. The researchers compared inflammatory markers C-reactive protein in serum, calprotectin in faeces, and others (TNFα, INFγ, IL-6, IL-2, IL-17a, and IL-10) from PMA/ionomycin-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells by cell mass cytometry at baseline to saffron treatment at 8 weeks.

Clinical response was assessed using the partial Mayo scoring, while the patient’s quality of life was evaluated using the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire along with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Finally, the researchers performed 16sDNA on stool DNA for gut microbiome.

Two out of three patients on saffron supplementation showed a significant improvement in faecal calprotectin after 8 weeks compared to baseline. Partial Mayo scores also improved, and proinflammatory markers TNFα, INFγ, IL-6, IL-2, and IL-17a decreased while anti-inflammatory IL-10 increased. [Inflamm Bowel Dis 2022;28(Suppl 1):S18]

A washout period of 8 weeks reversed the improvements in calprotectin, but a second cycle of saffron treatment restored such benefit in the two patients enrolled in the washout period. In addition, no treatment-related adverse events were observed during the study.

Of note, the effects of saffron on gut microbiome composition in UC patients resulted in a reduction in gamma Proteobacteria and an enrichment in Ruminococcaceae.

The findings suggest that saffron as adjuvant treatment may be beneficial to UC patients and reduce their need for immunosuppressive agents, according to the researchers.

In an earlier review by researchers in Iran, saffron was found to play a key role in the treatment of various digestive system disorders via chemopreventive, inhibition of cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, antioxidant effects and radical scavenging, genoprotective property, prevention of lipid peroxidation, and anti-inflammatory processes. [Iran J Basic Med Sci 2016;19:455-469]

“The outcome of the above-mentioned mechanisms shows potential therapeutic properties of saffron against liver cancer, hepatotoxicity, fatty liver, hyperlipidaemia, stomach cancer, peptic ulcer, colon cancer, ulcerative colitis, diabetes and pancreas cancer, and ileum contractions,” said authors Alireza Rezaee Khorasany and Hossein Hosseinzadeh from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran.