Saffron extract

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The short answer

Short trials suggest benefit for depressive symptoms and some PMS outcomes, but products and populations are limited.

Evidence and scope: Conditional or population-specific
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Benefit depends on the population, formulation, baseline status, and objective; results should not be generalized.
Before deciding: Key concern: Avoid high doses in pregnancy; anticoagulants, blood-pressure medicines, bipolar disorder, and allergy require review.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Mood symptoms28–30 mg/day standardized extract in many trials

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityFormulation-dependent

Not usefully classified as a fat- or water-soluble vitamin; absorption depends on the salt, extract, delivery system, and meal.

How it is commonly taken

May be divided with meals.

Do not combine casually

Avoid high doses in pregnancy; anticoagulants, blood-pressure medicines, bipolar disorder, and allergy require review.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

1research papers in this ledger

34unique primary studies represented

1,769unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2026

Mixed or qualifiedPMID 41693488

Saffron for depression, anxiety and mood disorders

Self-rated BDI and BAI scores improved, but heterogeneity was extreme and clinician-rated HDRS and HARS and POMS did not. Moderate-certainty evidence supports a possible complementary symptom effect, not replacement of evaluated mental-health care.

Published: 2026n=1,769 participants34 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: GRADE-assessed systematic review and meta-analysis of 34 randomized placebo-controlled trials
Population: 1,769 adults across clinical and nonclinical mental-health populations
Intervention: Saffron as the sole intervention difference for at least 4 weeks versus placebo
Outcome: Self-rated and clinician-rated depression, anxiety, and mood scales

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence23 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewPubMed bounded human-evidence search Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.