International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology

ISSN 2326-7267

International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology ISSN: 2326-7267 Vol. 6 (6), pp. 001-007, June, 2017. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Impact of saffron as an anti-cancer and anti-tumor herb

Siavash Hosseinpour Chermahini1*, Fadzilah Adibah Abd. Majid1, Mohamad Roji Sarmidi1,2, Ehsan Taghizadeh3 and Saleh Salehnezhad4

1Department of Bioprocess Engineering, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

2Research Alliance (Biotechnology), Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP), University Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

3Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

4Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Accepted 19 February, 2017

Abstract

Cancer continues to represent the largest cause of mortality in the world and claims over 6 million lives each year. An extremely promising strategy for cancer prevention today is chemoprevention, which is defined as the use of synthetic or natural agents (alone or in combination) to block the development of cancer in human beings. Plants, vegetables, herbs and spices used in folk and traditional medicine have been accepted currently as one of the main sources of cancer chemopreventive drug discovery and development. This review gives an overview from one of this herbs and spices that is saffron. The chemical composition of saffron has attracted the interest of several research groups during the last decades, and among the estimated more than 150 volatile and several nonvolatile compounds of saffron, approximately 40 – 50 constituents have already been identified. Oral administration of saffron extract inhibited the growth of mouse tumors that were derived from three different kinds of cancer cells and significantly increased the life spans of treated tumor-bearing mice.

Key words: Chemoprevention, volatile, tumor-bearing.