Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid present in several plants, including Coptis sp. and Berberis sp. Berberine is a customary component in Chinese medicine, and is characterized by a diversity of pharmacological effects. An extensive search in electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, Wiley, ProQuest, ISI, and Science Direct) were used to identify the pharmacological and clinical studies on Berberis vulgaris and berberine, during 2008 to 2015, using 'berberine' and 'Berberis vulgaris' as search words. We found more than 1200 new article studying the properties and clinical uses of berberine and B. vulgaris, for treating tumor, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, inflammation, bacterial and viral infections, cerebral ischemia trauma, mental disease, Alzheimer disease, osteoporosis, and so on. In this article, we have updated the pharmacological effects of B. vulgaris and its active constituent, berberine. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) has different medicinal applications in folk medicine of Iran. Berberine, an alkaloid constituent of this plant, is present in the roots, rhizomes, stem, and bark of B. vulgaris and many other plants. There have been many clinical trials conducted that suggested a wide range of therapeutic applications. Here, we investigated the clinical uses of berberine and B. vulgaris in the treatment of different diseases in humans. An extensive search in electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Sciences and Science Direct) was used to identify the clinical trials on B. vulgaris and berberine. Lipid‐lowering and insulin‐resistance improving actions are the most studied properties of berberine in numerous randomized clinical trials. There are also clinical trials regarding cardiovascular, anticancer, gastrointestinal, CNS, endocrine, and so on. Berberine has very low toxicity in usual doses and reveals clinical benefits without major side effects. Only mild gastrointestinal reactions may occur in some patients. The purpose of this review is to provide a summary concerning the clinical trials conducted on berberine to improve the clinical application of this nutraceutical in different diseases. In this review article, we used 77 clinical studies on human subjects.

In this study, the effects of saffron (Crocus sativus) stigma aqueous extract and two active constituents, crocin and safranal, were investigated on blood pressure of normotensive and desoxycorticosterone acetate-induced hypertensive rats. Three doses of crocin (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg), safranal (0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) and the aqueous extract (2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg) were administered intravenously in different groups of normotensive and hypertensive animals and their effects on mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) and heart rate (HR) were evaluated. The aqueous extract of saffron stigma, safranal and crocin reduced the MABP in normotensive and hypertensive anaesthetized rats in a dose-dependent manner. For example, administrations of 10 mg/kg of aqueous extract, 1 mg/kg of safranal and 200 mg/kg of crocin caused 60 +/- 8.7, 50 +/- 5.2 and 51 +/- 3.8 mmHg reductions in MABP, respectively. It can be concluded that the aqueous extract of saffron stigma has hypotensive properties which appear to be attributable, in part, to the actions of two major constitutes of this plant, crocin and safranal. It seems that safranal is more important than crocin for lowering down blood pressure of rats.

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Diazinon (DZN) is one of the most widely used insecticides in agricultural pest control. Previous studies have shown that DZN may induce hepatotoxicity. Reactive oxygen species and apoptosis pathways are involved in the toxicity of DZN. Crocin, a constituent of saffron, has hepatoprotective effects due to its antioxidant activity. In this study, we examined the effects of subacute DZN exposure and ameliorating effect of crocin on lipid peroxidation and pathological changes in rat liver. Moreover, protein levels of activated and total caspases-3 and -9 and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio were measured. Five groups of rats were used in the experiment. Corn oil (control), DZN (15 mg/kg per day, orally) and crocin (12.5, 25 and 50 mg/kg per day, intraperitoneally in combination with DZN) were given to male Wistar rats (n = 6) for 4 weeks. The level of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased significantly in DZN group compared with the control group (p < 0.05). MDA level decreased significantly in the group that received DZN plus 25 mg crocin (p < 0.001). No gross or histological evidence of treatment-related damage to the liver after oral exposure to DZN was observed. DZN also induced apoptosis through activation of caspases-9 and -3 and increasing Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Crocin attenuated the activation of caspases and reduced the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. It is concluded that subacute exposure to DZN induces oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis and crocin may reduce DZN-induced hepatotoxicity.