Pharmacologyonline - 2011

Saffron (Crocus sativa L.) is one of the most valuable Iranian local plants and has been traditionally used as a medicine. The preventive effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of saffron stigma and petal were evaluated against CCl 4 induced hepatotoxicity in rats. CCl 4 induced fatty degeneration and vacuole formation and significantly increased the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in plasma. Treatment with aqueous and ethanolic extracts of C. sativus L., stigmas and petals significantly decreased the levels of AST and ALT in plasma. Also histopathological studies showed that aqueous and ethanolic extracts of saffron (stigma and petal) reduce the incidence of liver lesions induced by CCl 4. The hepatoprotective effects of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of saffron may be due to: 1- antioxidant effects and radical scavenging 2-reduction of CCl 4 metabolic activation by cytochrome P450 inhibition 3- fixation of hepatic cell membrane. This results suggested that aqueous and ethanolic extracts of saffron exhibit hepatoprotective effects against liver damages induced by CCl 4 in mice.