Petal and Stigma of Crocus sativus L in the Treatment of Depression: A Pilot Double - blind Randomized Trial

Stigma of Crocus sativus L. (Iridaceae), commonly known as saffron, is the world’s most expensive spice and apart from its traditional value as food additive recent studies indicate its potential as antidepressant. Because saffron is expensive, using it daily to address depression may not be practical. Moreover, recent study indicated antidepressant effect of petal of Crocus sativus. As petal of Crocus sativus is not expensive compared to stigma, there will be economical interests for further investigations by pharmaceutical industries. Our objective was to compare the efficacy of petal of Crocus sativus with stigma of Crocus sativus in the treatment of depressed outpatients in a 6-week pilot double-blind randomized trial. Forty four adult outpatients who met the DSM- IV criteria for major depression based on the structured clinical interview for DSM- IV participated in the trial. Patients have a baseline Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score of at least 18. In this double-blind and randomized trial, patients were randomly assigned to receive capsule of petal of Crocus sativus 15 mg bid (morning and evening) (Group 1) and capsule of stigma of Crocus sativus 15 mg bid (morning and evening) (Group 2) for a 6-week study. At the end of trial, petal of Crocus sativus was found to be effective similar to stigma of Crocus sativus in the treatment of mild to moderate depression (d.f.=1, F= 0.05, P=0.81). In addition, in the both treatments, the remission rate was 18%.There were no significant differences in the two groups in terms of observed side effects. The present study is supportive of other studies which show antidepressant effect of petal and stigma of Crocus sativus.