Characterisation of secondary metabolites in saffron from central Italy (Cascia, Umbria)

Cossignani, Lina; Urbani, Eleonora; Simonetti, Maria Stella; Maurizi, Angela; Chiesi, Claudia; Blasi, Francesca

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.08.020

Cited by 66 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Saffron, a commonly used spice and food additive, is known for its anticancer and antitumor properties [12–16, 38]. CR and CCT, two carotenoid compounds derived from saffron, have shown a significant inhibitory effect on the growth of cancer cells [4, 7, 11, 14, 38, 39]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antitumor Effects of Saffron-Derived Carotenoids in Prostate Cancer Cell Models

Festuccia

Mancini

Gravina

et al. 2014

BioMed Research International

107

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Crocus sativus L. extracts (saffron) are rich in carotenoids. Preclinical studies have shown that dietary intake of carotenoids has antitumor effects suggesting their potential preventive and/or therapeutic roles. We have recently reported that saffron (SE) and crocin (CR) exhibit anticancer activity by promoting cell cycle arrest in prostate cancer (PCa) cells. It has also been demonstrated that crocetin esters are produced after SE gastrointestinal digestion by CR hydrolysis. The aim of the present report was to investigate if SE, crocetin (CCT), and CR affected in vivo tumor growth of two aggressive PCa cell lines (PC3 and 22rv1) which were xenografted in male nude mice treated by oral gavage with SE, CR, and CCT. We demonstrated that the antitumor effects of CCT were higher when compared to CR and SE and treatments reverted the epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferentiation (EMT) as attested by the significant reduction of N-cadherin and beta-catenin expression and the increased expression of E-cadherin. Additionally, SE, CR, and CCT inhibited PCa cell invasion and migration through the downmodulation of metalloproteinase and urokinase expression/activity suggesting that these agents may affect metastatic processes. Our findings suggest that CR and CCT may be dietary phytochemicals with potential antitumor effects in biologically aggressive PCa cells.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antitumor Effects of Saffron-Derived Carotenoids in Prostate Cancer Cell Models

Festuccia

Mancini

Gravina

et al. 2014

BioMed Research International

107

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“…The four main bioactive constitutes of stigma are crocetin, crocin, picrocrocin and safranal . A previous study evaluated the secondary metabolite contents of saffron produced in Italy . The proton‐transfer‐reaction quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry and high‐performance liquid chromatography techniques were performed to analyze the content in aroma and bioactive compounds of saffron by Masi .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[15] A previous study evaluated the secondary metabolite contents of saffron produced in Italy. [16] The proton-transfer-reaction quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography techniques were performed to analyze the content in aroma and bioactive compounds of saffron by Masi. [17] Previous study developed a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method to analyze the constituents in Crocus sativus petal extracts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discrimination of Different Parts of Saffron by Metabolomic‐Based Ultra‐Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with High‐Definition Mass Spectrometry

et al. 2019

Chemistry & Biodiversity

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In this study, the metabolite profiling of three different parts of Crocus sativus L. was measured by using ultra‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTof‐MS/MS). Multivariate statistical analysis was used to distinguish among the samples from different parts. A total of 54 compounds were identified in tepals, stigmas and stamens by UPLC‐QTof‐MS/MS. The results stated that chemical characteristics of saffron were obviously diverse in terms of the parts of flower. Through analysis, coniferin and crocin‐2 were special components in stigmas when compared to tepals and stamens. The content of flavonoids was high in tepals when compared with the stigmas. The tepal of saffron may processed as a source of flavonoids in the future. The research provided the basis for the theory that only the stigma can be used as medicine.

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“…The saffron aroma is produced after a thermal process (Carmona, Zalacain, Salinas, & Alonso, 2007;Raina, Agarwal, Bhatia, & Gaur, 1996;Sharafzadeh, 2011;Tarantilis & Polissiou, 1997) and safranal is considered the most important key compound. The bitter taste is currently identified as flavour; while, the colour exhibits various shades of yellow or red depending on the country of origin (Anastasaki et al, 2009(Anastasaki et al, , 2010Cossignani et al, 2014;Luykx & Van Ruth, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%