Crocetin, a Carotenoid from Gardenia jasminoides Ellis, Protects against Hypertension and Cerebral Thrombogenesis in Stroke‐prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Abstract

Crocetin is a natural carotenoid dicarboxylic acid that is found in the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis (Cape Jasmine) and in the stamen and pistil of Crocus sativus L. (saffron). It is used worldwide as an important spice, food colorant, and herbal medicine. In the current investigation, we have examined the cardiovascular effects of crocetin using stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSPs). Male SHRSPs (6 weeks old) were classified into three groups: a control group and two crocetin groups (25 and 50 mg/kg/day). The animals were given crocetin for 3 weeks. Body weights in each group were not significantly different during the treatment period, but the increase in systolic blood pressures observed with age was significantly moderated by crocetin. Thrombogenesis, assessed using a He-Ne laser technique in pial vessels, was significantly decreased. Antioxidant activity, assessed by measuring urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine levels, together with urinary nitric oxide (NO) metabolite levels, was increased significantly after treatment. Acetylcholine-induced vasodilation was measured using the aorta and indicated that endothelial function was significantly improved by crocetin. These results strongly suggest that the antihypertensive and antithrombotic effects of crocetin were related to an increase in bioavailable NO, possibly mediated by decreased inactivation of NO by reactive oxygen species.

Heterologous biosynthesis and manipulation of crocetin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…Crocetin, a kind of carotenoid existing in Crocus sativus L. [1], has great potential medical applications due to various pharmacological activities, such as antitumor [2, 3], antioxidation [4], antihypertension [5], antiatherosclerotic [6] and antidepressant [7]. Additionally, crocetin can be also used as edible pigment.…”

Effect of crocin on aged rat kidney through inhibition of oxidative stress and proinflammatory state

“…Thus, natural antioxidants have received growing attention as potential preventive agent by scavenging ROS, detoxifying potent genotoxic oxidants in recent years and also therapeutic interventions that inhibit inflammatory pathways may be an effective strategy to attenuate the aged related‐disorders (Samarghandian et al, ; Samini et al, ). Crocus sativus L. (Iridaceae), commonly known as saffron, has been used in medicine as an effective for neurodegenerative disorders and related memory impairment, ischemic retinopathy and age‐related macular degeneration, coronary artery disease, blood pressure abnormalities, acute and chronic inflammatory disease, mild to moderate depression, seizure, Parkinsonism (Ayatollahi et al, ; Bukhari et al, ; Higashino et al, ; Hosseinzadeh and Nassiri‐Asl, ; Kawasaki et al, ; Papandreou et al, ; Sahraian et al, ; Samarghandian et al, ). The main ingredients of saffron including crocin, crocetin, safranal and picrocrocin may be responsible for these pharmacological effects (Sahraian et al, ; Malaekeh‐Nikouei et al, ; Shirali et al, ).…”

Chinese Herbal Medicine on Cardiovascular Diseases and the Mechanisms of Action

“…A clinical study reports that 400 mg of Saffron tablets administered for 7 days are able to significantly reduce the systolic BP and mean arterial pressure in healthy humans by 11 and 5 mmHg, respectively (Modaghegh et al, 2008). Six weeks old stroke-prone SHRs are given crocetin for 3 weeks and this treatment significantly moderates the increase in systolic BP observed with age (Higashino et al, 2014). Saffron also demonstrates vasorelaxant activities in different animal models, including male Sprague-Dawley rats (Fatehi et al, 2003), stroke-prone SHRs (Higashino et al, 2014), deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt induced hypertensive male Wistar rats (Imenshahidi et al, 2010) but not normotensive rats (Imenshahidi et al, 2015).…”