Anti-Fatigue, Anti-Oxidation, Nervous System Protection -"Saffron Acid" protection -"saffron acid"

Saffron acid, also known as crocin acid and crocin acid, is one of the main medicinal active ingredients of saffron. As one of the natural active ingredients of saffron, saffron acid has almost no side effects on the human body. In the pharmacopoeia of ancient China, the pharmacological action of saffron acid has been described in detail. Saffron acid can be used to treat cardiovascular diseases, nervous system diseases, etc. In the prevention and treatment of hypertension, depression and other diseases, they also have more outstanding performance. Saffron contains a variety of active ingredients, such as saffron, saffron bitter, saffron acid, etc.These ingredients give saffron a variety of pharmacological effects, such as antioxidants, anti-fatigue, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and so on.

01 Health Benefits

Anti-fatigue saffron acid exerts anti-fatigue effects through a variety of mechanisms, including improving exercise endurance, regulating energy metabolism, antioxidant, neuroprotective and immune regulation. These effects may help reduce fatigue and improve overall body performance. Some researchers investigated the anti-fatigue activity of croceanic acid nano-liposomes (CLN) in mice treated with acute exercise and its potential mechanism. It was found that CLN significantly increased the exhaustive swimming time of tired mice, decreased the content of lactic acid, BUN and MDA in blood, and improved the antioxidant status of mice, increased the mRNA expression of ATP synthase by activating AMPK/PGC-1α signaling pathway, and promoted mitochondrial biosynthesis. In addition, CLN also improved the gut microbiome structure by increasing the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus in the gut of tired mice. Antioxidant saffron acid has excellent antioxidant activity and can strongly inhibit lipid peroxidation, so it is clinically used for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis. Some studies conducted gavage experiments on mice to study the possible mechanism of saffron acid's anti-atherosclerosis effect. It was found that saffron acid can efficiently remove O2 produced in hypoxanthine and xanthine oxidase reaction pathway in mice, significantly reduce the oxidative susceptibility of low-density lipoprotein and improve its antioxidant capacity. At the same time, it can significantly enhance the serum resistance to the oxidation induced by copper ions. These results indicate that saffron acid is likely to improve the antioxidant capacity of the body, reduce the oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein, and then achieve the pharmacological effect of preventing atherosclerosis. More researchers have found through experiments that saffron acid also has an extremely important function on the nervous system, which can promote the survival of neurons, highlighting plasticity, and also has a certain prevention and treatment effect on Alzheimer's disease. Studies have confirmed that saffron acid can activate microglia. When the body is in a state of disease, the activation of microglia can reduce the possibility of neurotoxicity induced by various inflammatory mediators, help restore the internal balance of the central nervous system, and provide certain neuroprotection for the body. Anti-arrhythmic studies have shown that crocetin can significantly improve arrhythmias induced by aconitine, ouabain and calcium chloride, and speculated that the mechanism of its anti-arrhythmic action may be related to inhibiting the outflow of calcium ions or sodium ions. Some studies have verified that both crocetin and crocetin can improve arrhythmias to a certain extent at the animal level. It can also inhibit the occurrence of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. Other researchers conducted relevant studies on the safety of the anti-arrhythmic effect of crocetin acid, and the results showed that different concentrations of crocetin acid had no significant effect on the protein expression of HERG potassium channel in HEK-293 cells with HERG pathway, indicating that crocetin acid is safe, feasible and has good safety in combating arrhythmia.

02 Regulation Dynamics

On November 25, 2019, the National Health Commission of China and the State Administration for Market Regulation of China issued the Announcement on 6 New Substances including Angelica Sinensis that are both traditional food and Chinese herbal medicine, including saffron in the catalog management of substances that are both traditional food and Chinese herbal medicine, and are only used as spices and condiments. In GB 2760-2014 "Food Safety National Standard Standard for the use of food additives", the use of saffron as a food additive is specified. In the 2020 edition of the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia", saffron is included in the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia", classified as medicinal materials and decoction pieces, which specify the quality standards of saffron, including appearance, drying weight loss, total ash, absorbance, extract, saffron glycoside - I and saffron glycoside - II content, bitter saffron content and pesticide residues.

03 Market Application

Saffron is known as "red gold" and is known for its rarity and high price. In terms of market application and product development in the field of food and health products, saffron has a wide range of applications and great potential. In the food field, saffron is used as a condiment in high-end catering and food processing industries, such as paella, pasta and so on, because of its unique aroma and color. The stigma of saffron contains a high amount of natural pigments and is used as a natural pigment in the food industry to replace synthetic pigments.

In the field of health care products, saffron contains a variety of active ingredients, such as saffron picrin, saffron acid, saffron aldehyde, etc. These ingredients have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and other pharmacological effects, providing a rich material basis for the development of health care products. Capsules or tablets containing saffron extract, for example, are designed to improve mood and reduce depressive symptoms through their antidepressant ingredients, such as saffron acid and saffron hormone. The calming effects of saffron make it a major ingredient in health products that improve sleep, such as sleep aid teas or capsules.

04 Production technology

At present, anti-fatigue drugs are mainly chemical drugs, although such drugs have anti-fatigue effects, but most of the central nervous system stimulants, may cause addiction and dependence, limiting their clinical application. Therefore, the application of saffron acid to anti-fatigue drugs and functional foods will greatly alleviate the dilemma of addiction and dependence on existing anti-fatigue drugs.

05 Introduction of scientists' technical achievements

This technology provides applications of saffron acid as an anti-fatigue ingredient in medicines and foods. Solution A was obtained by dissolving 25mg saffron acid and 500mg 70% purity lecithin in 20mL anhydrous ethanol. Then, 100mL of deionized water was rapidly injected into the stirring state at 400r/min to obtain solution A, and the stirring state was maintained for 60min. Then the reaction liquid was rotated and evaporated at 45℃ to completely remove the anhydrous ethanol, and then the deionized water was used to fix the volume to 100mL to obtain nano-liposomes of crude saffron acid. Finally, the concentration of saffron acid nanopoliposomes was 0.25mg/mL and the concentration of lecithin was 5mg/mL through 0.45μm and 0.22μm filtration membranes successively. The anti-fatigue activity of saffron acid was studied in animal experiments. The results showed that saffron acid liposomes significantly improved the exhaustion swimming time of mice, especially the low-dose group of saffron acid nano-liposomes. At the same time, various biochemical indexes were measured and it was found that saffron acid administration significantly increased the content of liver glycogen in mice. Compared with the model group, saffron acid administration reduced the content of urea nitrogen in the body of mice, indicating that the oxidative decomposition of proteins in the body during fatigue was reduced. The administration of croceanic acid nano-liposome can also increase the content of GSH-Px enzyme in mice, enhance the body's ability to resist oxidative damage, and help reduce fatigue. The loaded croceanic acid nano-liposomes in this technology can increase mitochondrial biogenesis by activating AMPK pathway, further increase ATP production to promote energy supply, and therefore have a certain promoting effect on the exercise ability of tired mice. In other words, animal experiments have proved that croceanic acid nano-liposomes have a good anti-fatigue effect.

06 Conclusion

The use of saffron acid as an anti-fatigue ingredient in medicines and foods is either independent of saffron acid or in  combination with other anti-fatigue ingredients.  The application form is one or several of saffron acid,  saffron acid salt, saffron acid complex, saffron acid nano-carrier, saffron acid hydrogel, saffron acid complex,  and the application form includes powder, injection, capsule, tablet,  and beverage.  The nanoparticle liposomes containing saffron acid were prepared,  and the encapsulation rate of the nanoparticle liposomes containing saffron acid was 55.63± 1.61%. In terms of anti-fatigue activity,  the average particle size of the crocean-acid-containing nano-liposomes in aqueous solution was 500-1000nm.

*Content source: "Application of crocetin as anti-fatigue component in medicine and food"

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