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.