Table 2.

Pharmaceutical properties of saffron.

Compounds	Bioactive constituent	In vivo/in vitro	Pharmacological functions	References
Carotenoid	Crocin	Mice	Neuroprotective	[22]
	Crocin and crocetin	Rat	Neuroprotective	[58]
	Crocetin	Human	Antifatigue	[59]
	Crocin	—	Anti-Alzheimer	[60]
	Crocin	Human	Antischizophrenia	[61]
Monoterpene aldehydes	—	Human	Antidepressant	[23]
	Safranal	Mice	Anticonvulsant	[24]
	Picrocrocin	—	Antiproliferative	[62]
	Picrocrocin	—	Anticancer	[63]
Monoterpenoids	Crocusatin D	—	Withdrawal syndrome, depression, spatial memory	[64]
	Crocusatin F
	Crocusatin G
	Crocusatin H
	Crocusatin E
	Crocusatin I
Isophorones	Isomer of isophorone	Mice	Parkinson disease	[64]
	Isophorone		Hyperglycaemia–glucose uptake/metabolism
General saffron extract	Crocin, crocetin, safranal, and picrocrocin	Mice	Anticancer effects, atherosclerosis, myocardial ischaemia, cardioprotection, anxiety, and insomnia	[64]