Herb library · Spice · Crocus sativus
Saffron
The red threads (stigmas) of a cultivated crocus, used to color and flavor rice dishes, breads and sweets. Small trials of saffron capsules for low mood suggest it may help about as much as some antidepressants, but the trials are small; large doses, far beyond cooking amounts, are toxic.
Traditional use
Valued since ancient times in Persia, Greece, India and China for its color, scent and flavor, and as a medicine. Ainslie's 1826 Materia Indica, written in South India, records that Hindu doctors gave it for nervous complaints and low spirits, that Tamil midwives gave an infusion of it to women after childbirth, and that it was used round the eye in a paste with chebulic myrobalan and lime juice. Culpeper called it a cordial for the heart and warned against taking too much; early medical writers, Dymock records, described it as good for the heart and the complexion. Recent trials have tested saffron extracts for mood, sleep and memory.
Traditional energetics
Galenic (hot or cold, dry or moist)
Hot in the second degree, dry in the first. Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1814), p. 265 (opens in a new tab)
What studies show
- Limited
Low mood and anxiety: a 2025 meta-analysis of randomized trials found saffron capsules did about as well as SSRI antidepressants for mild-to-moderate depression and anxiety, with fewer side effects. The trials were small, and the authors call for larger studies in more varied populations.
- Limited
Sleep: a 2022 meta-analysis of eight trials (431 people) found better sleep quality and duration than placebo, with very low- to moderate-quality evidence.
- Insufficient
Memory problems and Alzheimer's disease: a 2020 meta-analysis of four trials found better cognitive scores than placebo, but concluded there is not enough high-quality evidence to recommend it.
Be careful of
Cautions
- AmountCooking and supplement doses are tiny (the trials mostly used about 30 mg a day). A 2020 review states that doses under 1.5 g a day are considered relatively safe, toxic effects are reported at 5 g a day and above, and about 20 g can be lethal.
- PregnancyWomen exposed to very high levels of saffron during harvesting had more miscarriages, and there are too few trials on safety in pregnancy; a 2017 toxicology review advises pregnant women to avoid high doses.
- NoteDo not confuse saffron with meadow saffron (autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale), a different, poisonous plant: Austria's poison information center recorded 174 suspected poisonings in 17 years, two of them fatal.
- NoteIn the trials, side effects at supplement doses were mostly mild (nausea, headache, dry mouth, changes in appetite).
- InteractionSaffron has been studied alongside and compared with antidepressants; do not start or stop it in place of a prescribed medicine without talking to your clinician.
- Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.
From the old books
What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.
“The Hindoo doctors prescribe saffron in nervous affections, unattended with vertigo, and where there is no disposition to apoplexy; they also believe it to have considerable virtue in melancholia, hysteric depressions, and kistnah doshum (typhus fever).”
“Let not above ten grains be given at one time, for the Sun, which is the fountain of light, may dazzle the eyes, and make them blind; a cordial being taken in an immoderate quantity, hurts the heart instead of helping it.”
“Saffron, on account of its brilliant yellow colour, like that of the rising sun, has been especially valued by mankind from the earliest ages; in Sanskrit it bears the name of Kunkuma”
In scripture
Where the Bible names this plant, and which plant scholars think is meant.
spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), the plant on this page. Tristram (1898) calls the meaning beyond doubt: the Hebrew karkom matches the Arabic name of saffron. H. B. Tristram, The Natural History of the Bible (1898), p. 479 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
- Effect of saffron versus selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in treatment of depression and anxiety: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (Nutr Rev, 2025) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Saffron (Crocus sativus) for depression: a systematic review of clinical studies (Hum Psychopharmacol, 2014) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Crocus sativus for insomnia: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Saffron for mild cognitive impairment and dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials (BMC Complement Med Ther, 2020) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Saffron for mild cognitive impairment and dementia (BMC Complement Med Ther, 2020) — full text, PubMed Central (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Toxicology effects of saffron and its constituents: a review (Iran J Basic Med Sci, 2017) — full text, PubMed Central (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Phytotherapic use of the Crocus sativus L. (saffron) and its potential applications: a brief overview (Phytother Res, 2018) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
- Colchicum autumnale intoxications: experience of the Poisons Information Centre, Austria 2002–2018 (Clin Toxicol, 2023) — PubMed record (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
Reviewed September 25, 2026.