The impact of saffron on lipid profile

Introduction: Lipid profile is a term used to describe the levels of different types of fats in the blood, includingtotal cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL).High level of lipid profile is indeed a risk factor to different chronic diseases such as stroke, type ۲ diabetesmellitus, and coronary heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated ۳۹% of theglobal adult populace has experienced elevated levels of blood cholesterol, exhibiting a greater prevalenceamong females (۴۰%) compared to males (۳۷%). Hence, although multiple therapeutic interventions areavailable to manage and reduce lipid profiles, the saffron supplementation has demonstrated a favorable impacton them. Considering that there are conflicting studies, in this review, we aim to associate this impact on lipidprofile in clinical trials.Method: Searching in various databases like PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, we included all clinical trialsin which they used saffron as an intervention and analyzing on lipid profiles.Results: According to a clinical trials the addition of saffron to the diet for a duration of ۸ weeks resulted inenhancements in the status of glycaemia, profile of lipids, functionality of the liver, quality of life, and qualityof sleep among patients diagnosed with type ۲ diabetes who were also overweight or obese. Similarly, anotherclinical trials found this supplement can significantly decline fasting blood sugar, lipid profile (except HDL),atherogenic indices, and liver enzymes, while improving oxidative status. However, there is another clinicaltrials in which they also used saffron as an intervention, contrarily, the reduction of lipid profile was notobserved. Additionally, an Iranian clinical trials working on patient suffering from major depression, had gotteneither fluoxetine and saffron or fluoxetine and placebo. This study also failed to provide evidence of theantidepressive properties of saffron, and no discernible reduction in lipid levels was observed among theparticipants in the saffron group.Conclusion: Our study illustrates that saffron has a good impact on TG and TC whereas its effect on LDL andHDL is not evidence. Furthermore, we need more study on its mechanism and pathways in human body, whichis still unexploded. Additionally, to validate the efficacy of saffron, it is imperative to compare different dosesusing standardized techniques for dispensing the extract and evaluating the outcomes.

کلیدواژه ها:

lipid profiles ، Saffron ، LDL ، HDL