Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Biopolis, Panepistimiou 3, 415-00 Larissa, Greece.
Molecules. 2021 Feb 25;26(5):1237. doi: 10.3390/molecules26051237.
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental devastating disease. Current therapy suffers from various limitations including low efficacy and serious side effects. Thus, there is an urgent necessity to develop new antipsychotics with higher efficacy and safety. The dried stigma of the plant L., () commonly known as saffron, are used in traditional medicine for various purposes. It has been demonstrated that saffron and its bioactive components crocins and safranal exert a beneficial action in different pathologies of the central nervous system such as anxiety, depression, epilepsy and memory problems. Recently, their role as potential antipsychotic agents is under investigation. In the present review, I intended to critically assess advances in research of these molecules for the treatment of schizophrenia, comment on their advantages over currently used neuroleptics as well-remaining challenges. Up to our days, few preclinical studies have been conducted to this end. In spite of it, results are encouraging and strongly corroborate that additional research is mandatory aiming to definitively establish a role for saffron and its bioactive components for the treatment of schizophrenia.
精神分裂症是一种慢性的、严重的精神疾病。目前的治疗方法存在多种局限性，包括疗效低和副作用严重等问题。因此，迫切需要开发出疗效更高、安全性更好的新型抗精神病药物。植物 的干燥柱头 （），通常被称为藏红花，在传统医学中被用于多种用途。已经证明，藏红花及其生物活性成分藏红花酸和西红花醛在中枢神经系统的各种疾病中发挥有益作用，如焦虑、抑郁、癫痫和记忆问题。最近，它们作为潜在的抗精神病药物的作用正在研究中。在本次综述中，我旨在批判性地评估这些分子在治疗精神分裂症方面的研究进展，评论它们相对于目前使用的神经安定药的优势以及仍然存在的挑战。到目前为止，为此目的进行了很少的临床前研究。尽管如此，结果令人鼓舞，强烈支持需要进行更多的研究，以明确确定藏红花及其生物活性成分在治疗精神分裂症方面的作用。
