Therapeutic potential of the plant-based compounds crocin and picrocrocin in cancer treatment

Cancer is the most important cause of mortality among humans and current treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy are often not effective and have adverse side effects. It has recentlybeen determined that herbal compounds with different biological effects represent the main source of cancer prevention. Crocin, followed by picrocrocin, is one of the most important carotenoid and glycosidic compounds of Crocus sativus that have great therapeutic potential to treat cancer. This review reported the latest scientific evidence on the therapeutic effects of C. sativus secondarycompounds on cancer. This review was conducted using relevant search terms to retrieve eligible articles published by the journals and congresses on medical sciences in Iran as well as the articlesindexed in the Scopus, Scientific Information Database and PubMed. The crocin and picocrocin in dried C. sativus extract have anticancer effects and can inhibit breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and HepG2, cervical cancer cell line HeLa, colon cancer cell line HT-29 and pancreatic cancer cell line TCL in time- and dose-dependent manner. These compounds have also been found to exert significanteffects on lung, pancreatic and bladder cancers in animal models, with increased longevity of the treated mice. It is particularly important to use plant-based compounds as anticancer agents due to comparatively fewer side effects. Crocin and picocrocin are two of the most important compounds of C. sativus that have great potential, as safe natural agents, to prevent and treat different types of cancer.It is therefore necessary to pay further attention to the isolation and purification of the active pharmaceutical compounds of C. sativus as well as to explain the anticancer action mechanism(s) of thisplant to develop drugs.

Keywords:

Colon Cancer , Cancer Prevention , Cell and Cancer , Cancer Risks , Cancer Treatment and Management , Drugs and Cancer