Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Review Article

The Effect of Crocus sativus L. and Its Constituents on Memory: Basic Studies and Clinical Applications

Table 1

Effects of Crocus sativus L. and its constituents on cognition. Preclinical studies.


Species	Agent	Dose range	Route	Memory task	Effect	Reference

Mouse	CsE Ethanol Scopolamine	125–250–500 mg/kg 30%, 10 mL/kg 0.5 mg/kg	p.o. acute p.o. acute i.p. acute	Passive avoidance	Reversed ethanol but not scopolamine-induced deficits	[46]
Mouse	Crocin Picrocrocin Ethanol	50–100–200 mg/kg 50–100–200 mg/kg 30–40%, 10 mL/kg	p.o. acute p.o. acute p.o. acute	Passive avoidance	Crocin but not picrocrocin reversed ethanol-induced deficits	[49]
Rat	CsE Scopolamine	10–30–60 mg/kg 0.75 mg/kg	i.p. acute s.c. acute	Novel object recognition Passive avoidance	Reversed (30–60 mg/kg) scopolamine-induced and delay-dependent memory deficits	[48]
Rat	Crocins Scopolamine	15–30 mg/kg 0.2 mg/kg	i.p. s.c..	Novel object recognition Radial water maze	Given acutely reversed scopolamine-induced recognition memory deficits, chronic treatment (5 days) counteracted scopolamine-induced performance deficits in the radial water maze task	[50]
Rat	Crocin Streptozotocin	15–30 mg/kg 3 mg/kg	i.p. chronic i.c.v. acute	Y-maze Passive avoidance	Chronic treatment (30 mg/kg, for three weeks) reversed streptozotocin-induced performance deficits in the Y-maze and passive avoidance task	[51]
Aged mouse	CsE	60 mg/kg	i.p. chronic	Passive avoidance	Chronic treatment (7 days) reversed age-related memory deficits	[52]
Rat	CsE Crocin	30 mg/kg 15–30 mg/kg	i.p. chronic i.p. chronic	Morris water maze	Chronic treatment (21 days) reversed chronic stress-induced spatial memory deficits	[53]
Rat	CsE Crocin	50–100–250 mg/kg 5–10–25 mg/kg	i.p. chronic i.p. chronic	Morris water maze	Chronic treatment (7 days) of CsE (100–250 mg/kg) and crocin reversed cerebral ischemia-induced spatial memory deficits	[38]
Rat	Crocin Streptozotocin	100 mg/kg 3 mg/kg	p.o. chronic i.c.v. (2 infusions)	Morris water maze	Chronic treatment (21 days) reversed streptozotocin- induced spatial memory deficits	[54]
Mouse	CsE Aluminium (AlCl₃)	60 mg/kg 50 mg/kg	i.p. chronic p.o. chronic	Passive avoidance	Ineffective to reverse AlCl₃-induced memory deficits	[55]
Rat	Crocins Ketamine	15–30 mg/kg 3 mg/kg	i.p. acute i.p. acute	Novel object recognition	Reversed ketamine-induced recognition memory deficits	[33]

CsE, Crocus sativus extracts; i.c.v., intracerebroventricularly; i.p., intraperitoneally; p.o., orally; s.c., subcutaneously.