How long can you take satiereal

Otherwise, click Continue. Maintaining a healthy weight can be difficult. We know that maintaining a healthy weight is hard. But Optimized Saffron can make it easier by helping you resist the urge to graze after hours or snack between meals.

S, and a Certificate of Analysis is available for every product we produce. Saffron extract helps you resist between-meal snacking, late-night cravings and the urge to stress-eat. At the beginning of the study, all participants matched each other closely in terms of age, body weight and reported snacking habits. The women in the study recorded their experiences in a nutrition diary.

Caloric intake was left unrestricted during the study. Weight loss was also better than the placebo group. Other ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, vegetable cellulose capsule , silica, acacia gum. International Patents Pending. Product reviews are provided for informational purposes only and reflect solely the views and opinions expressed by the contributors and not those of Life Extension. We do not verify or endorse any claims made in these reviews.

Please read the full product reviews disclaimer. Maintain a healthy weight or jumpstart your weight loss goals. Find out which essential nutrients are best for your age, weight and body composition. Advanced Appetite Suppress. Advanced Appetite Suppress helps you resist the urge to snack with a white kidney bean extract that helps support normal levels of gut hormones that control appetite and satiety. This, along with diet and exercise, can help you reach a healthy weight. Dopamine Advantage.

Our phellodendron bark powder and Adenosylcobalamin B12 formula helps your brain maintain normal dopamine levels. Rhodiola Extract. Rhodiola is a stress-modulating adaptogen that promotes cellular energy metabolism.

Rhodiola also promotes physical and mental performance, physical endurance and more. Studies show that increasing AMPK activity can encourage cells to stop storing fat and start burning it for energy. Please Wait. Recommended Products for You. Get your results! Show My Results. Print Recommendations. Please enter a valid email.

Another study found that simply smelling saffron for 20 minutes helped reduce PMS symptoms like anxiety and lowered levels of the stress hormone cortisol Summary Both eating and smelling saffron appears to help treat PMS symptoms, such as irritability, headaches, cravings, pain, and anxiety. Studies have shown that saffron may have aphrodisiac properties — especially in people taking antidepressants. For instance, taking 30 mg of saffron daily over four weeks significantly improved erectile function over a placebo in men with antidepressant-related erectile dysfunction Additionally, an analysis of six studies showed that taking saffron significantly improved erectile function, libido, and overall satisfaction but not semen characteristics In women with low sexual desire due to taking antidepressants, 30 mg of saffron daily over four weeks reduced sex-related pain and increased sexual desire and lubrication, compared to a placebo Summary Saffron may have aphrodisiac properties for both men and women and may especially help those taking antidepressants.

According to research, saffron may help prevent snacking by curbing your appetite. In one eight-week study, women taking saffron supplements felt significantly more full, snacked less frequently, and lost significantly more weight than women in the placebo group In another eight-week study, taking a saffron extract supplement helped significantly reduce appetite, body mass index BMI , waist circumference, and total fat mass 3.

However, scientists are unsure how saffron curbs appetite and aids weight loss. One theory is that saffron elevates your mood, which in turn reduces your desire to snack Summary Saffron has been shown to reduce snacking and curb your appetite.

In turn, these behaviors may help you lose weight. Summary Saffron has been linked to several other potential health benefits, such as improved heart disease risk, blood sugar levels, eyesight, and memory.

However, more studies are needed to draw stronger conclusions. In small doses, saffron has a subtle taste and aroma and pairs well with savory dishes, such as paella, risottos, and other rice dishes. Add the threads and the liquid to your recipe to achieve a deeper, richer flavor. Saffron is readily available at most specialty markets and can be purchased as threads or in powdered form.

In fact, using too much saffron can give your recipes an overpowering medicinal taste. Summary Saffron has a subtle taste and aroma, which makes it easy to add to your diet.

It pairs well with savory dishes and should be soaked in hot water to give a deeper flavor. Alternatively, you can purchase saffron in supplement form to reap its benefits. As a dietary supplement, people can safely take up to 1. However, only 30 mg of saffron per day have been shown to be enough to reap its health benefits 7 , 17 , On the other hand, high doses of 5 grams or more can have toxic effects. Pregnant women should avoid high doses, as it may cause miscarriage 31 , Another issue with saffron — especially saffron powder — is that it may be adulterated with other ingredients, such as beet, red-dyed silk fibers, turmeric , and paprika.

Adulteration cuts cost for manufacturers, as real saffron is expensive to harvest If the saffron appears too cheap, its best to avoid it. Summary In normal doses, saffron is generally safe with little to no side effects. Make sure to purchase saffron from a reputable brand or store to avoid an adulterated product.

Among the compounds used in modern nutrition and pharmacology, antioxidants are the most significant. For their special antioxidant characteristics, carotenoids and polyphenols have attracted much interest. They are able to reduce levels of glucose, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in blood, increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, as well as lower body weight and adiposity [ 10 , 11 ].

Research results have shown that they are also capable of inhibiting enzymes related to fat metabolism, including pancreatic lipase, lipoprotein lipase and glycerophosphate dehydrogenase [ 12 , 13 ].

Saffron is the dried stigma of the flowers of the saffron crocus Crocus sativus L. Iridaceae , which can be classified as a potent plant antioxidant. Numerous studies indicated the health promoting properties of saffron are attributed primarily to crocin, a unique carotenoid with powerful antioxidant capacity, which makes distinctive bright yellow color of the stigma [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].

According to several researchers, saffron is considered a potential therapeutic drug in clinical trials [ 20 , 21 ]. Recently, the application of saffron in many types of neuronal and cardiovascular disorders as well as cancer has been studied [ 22 ]. This paper briefly reviews the available scientific evidence regarding the role of bioactive compounds of saffron in modulation of some metabolic disorders as well as the link between antioxidants of saffron and their possible anti-obesity potential.

The available literature reviewed in this paper provides proof supporting the positive role of saffron in treatment of some obesity-related metabolic disorders such as hyperlipidemia, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

However, further studies are needed in order to investigate whether saffron can be regarded as an effective medication in weight loss and obesity treatment and to analyze the molecular mechanisms involved. The chemical composition of stigmas of Crocus sativus L. Crocin and picrocrocin are the major compounds in saffron. Crocin is responsible for its characteristic color, and picrocrocin is a precursor of safranal.

In addition to Crocin and picrocrocin, anthocyanins, flavonoids, vitamins riboflavin and thiamine , amino acids, proteins, starch, mineral matter, gums, and other chemical compounds have been found in saffron [ 15 , 16 , 23 ]. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the most important components of saffron. Crocin Crocetin di-gentiobiose ester has been detected as the most prominent chemical constituent isolated from the saffron voluble spice and from the less expensive Gardenia fruit Gardenia Jasminoides Ellis [ 24 , 25 ].

Crocin C 44 H 4 O 24 is a di-ester which is formed from the disaccharide gentiobiose and the dicarboxylic acid crocetin and is considered as one of the few naturally occurring carotenoids easily soluble in water. Crocin has shown various pharmacological activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, learning and memory enhancer in medicinal field [ 8 , 26 ]. Besides its high anti-oxidant activity, the distinctive orange-red color of its pigment has made it also noteworthy for various industrial applications such as coloring matter in food and dying industry, preservative, bleaching agent for evaluation of pro-oxidant activity of foods by kinetic analysis and anti-aging agent in cosmetics [ 27 ].

Studies showed that crocin is not absorbed throughout the gastrointestinal tract. It has been observed that after oral administration of crocins, it is priorly hydrolysed to crocetin or through intestinal absorption, the absorbed crocetin is partially metabolized to mono- and di-glucuronide conjugates [ 28 ].

It was also found that oral administration of crocinis not absorbed either after single or frequent doses. Following oral administration of crocin, it is primarily excreted through the intestinal tract. Crocetin concentrations of plasma do not tend to rise with frequent oral doses of crocin and the intestinal tract function as the key site for hydrolysis of saffron [ 29 ]. Moreover, Ames study biological assessment to determine the mutagenic potential of chemical compounds had indicated the non-mutagenic and non-antimutagenic properties of crocin from saffron [ 16 ].

Saffron is used in natural medicine as anti-catarrhal, anti-spasmodic, nerve sedative, gingival seda-tive, diaphoretic, carminative and expectorant [ 15 ]. In a relatively recent pharmacological studies, saffron demonstrated numerous health properties such as anti-cancer and anti-toxic [ 16 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], antioxidant [ 14 , 18 , 21 , 34 , 35 , 36 ], antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory [ 37 , 38 ], anti-atherosclerosis [ 20 , 22 , 39 ], anti-diabetic and insulin resistance [ 40 , 41 , 42 ], hypotensive [ 43 ], hypolipidemic [ 44 ] and hypoglycemic [ 45 , 46 , 47 ], antidepressant and mood improving [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ] effects.

Although numerous studies have been reported in different medicinal properties of saffron and its constituents but in this paper we concentrated on scientific evidence demonstrating the potential of saffron against obesity and related metabolic disorders. Some of the major reported biological functions attributable to potential anti-obesity effect of saffron as well as experimental conditions, dosage and conclusions are summarized in Table 1.

Many studies on medicinal properties of saffron have indicated that saffron has a potent antioxidant activity which is mostly due to the presence of crocin as a unique carotenoid. The crocin bleaching assay was also designed according to this important property of crocin as a basic element for the antioxidant activity of saffron [ 27 , 54 , 55 ]. Kanakis et al. However, the synergistic effect of all the bioactive constituents gave saffron a significant antioxidant activity.

The antioxidant property of crocin was evaluated in comparable amounts with butylated hydroxyanisole BHA [ 27 ]. High radical scavenging activity of these compounds is probably due to their ability to donate a hydrogen atom to the DPPH radical [ 21 ]. Crocin scavenges free radicals, mainly the superoxide anions, and so may defend cells against oxidative stress.

Research results have shown that crocin is beneficial for sperm cryo-conservation; therefore, it could be helpful in treatment of neurodegenerative disorders due to its great antioxidant activity [ 29 ].

The chemopreventive property of saffron via modulation of antioxidants, lipid peroxidation, and detoxification systems was also proposed [ 64 ]. Crocin has been reported as an effective hypolipidemic agent in several human and animal studies. Crocin decreased the amount of cholesterol in hyperlipidemic rats with 2 months feeding of excessive cholesterol [ 44 ].

In another study, it was found that crocin has strong triglyceridemic and cholesterolemic lowering effects in quails with coronary artery disease [ 22 ]. Further research verified that crocetin could reduce the levels of serum, total cholesterol and malondialdehyde and prevent reduction of nitric oxide in serum of hyperlipidemic-diet quails [ 39 ]. In the elucidation of the hypolipidemic mechanism of crocin, Sheng et al. They reported this inhibition was very much related to the hydrolysis of fat.

Likewise, the modified fat-balance method indicated that crocin increased excretion of fecal fat and cholesterol in rats, but it had no impact on the elimination of bile acids. Data of the in situ loop method and enzyme assay demonstrated that crocin could not directly inhibit the absorption of cholesterol from rat jejunum but could selectively block the activity of pancreatic lipase as a competitive inhibitor.

These findings suggest that crocin has lipid lowering properties by inhibiting pancreatic lipase, leading to malabsorption of fat and cholesterol [ 44 ]. Pancreatic lipase inhibitor has attracted much attention for its key role in obesity treatment due to its effectiveness and low toxicity.

Orlistat has been a familiar pancreatic lipase inhibitor available in the market as an anti-obesity drug since Orlistat powerfully inhibits the activities of both gastric and pancreatic lipases, but crocin has higher selectivity for pancreatic lipase.

The inhibition of orlistat on lipase is irreversible, whereas the inhibition of crocin is reversible [ 44 ]. Further crocin is fully unabsorbable while minimum orlistat could be absorbed, which may sometimes result in hepatotoxicity [ 44 ]. Usually, orlistat has some gastrointestinal side effects including oily spotting, flatulence and frequent loose stools [ 66 ]. However, crocin does not have those side effects and was confirmed to be nontoxic [ 67 ] which may be attributed to its moderately mild inhibition on lipase.

Reportedly saffron significantly increased serum insulin and lowered blood glucose in diabetic rats [ 45 ]. Crocin was found to possess anti diabetic property in rodents fed fructose as it relieved free fatty acid induced insulin insensitivity and dysregulated mRNA expression of TNF-alpha, adiponectin as well as leptin in primary cultured rat adipocytes proposing the possibility of crocin prescription as a preventive approach of insulin resistance and the related diseases [ 54 , 68 ].

Advanced glycation end products are associated with the cause of oxidative reaction that normally occurs in endothelial cell apoptosis and thus results in diabetic vascular complications.

Crocin by virtue of its good antioxidant capacity and calcium antagonistic action or stabilization may be a good solution for diabetic vascular complications [ 55 ]. El-Daly [ 69 ] described that Crocus sativus stigmas given together with cisplatin led to an even greater reduction in blood glucose than that seen with cisplatin. Recently Kang et al. In line with the findings of GLUT4 translocation, it was also suggested that there is interference between the two signaling pathways of glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle cells.

Overall, AMPK plays a key role in the effects of saffron on glucose uptake and insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle cells [ 23 ]. Crocin and ethanolic extracts of saffron are known to show antidepressant impact on rodents. Ethanolic extract of saffron stigma was found to significantly reduce the body weight in rats [ 27 , 51 ]. Decreased appetite has been shown as a clinical complication and side effect following the treatment with saffron [ 27 , 51 ].

In a human trial published in , saffron by the name of Satiereal was under consideration as a satiety enhancer and weight loss promoter. In this study, mood-improving effect of saffron which would result in lowered appetite and snacking was investigated.

After 2 months, the subjects using the saffron extract reported a decrease in snacking and lost more weight than the control group [ 60 ]. Authors suggested that combination of an adequate diet with saffron supplementation as a Satiereal might help subjects engaged in a weight loss program in achieving their objective [ 60 ]. Obesity is a chronic disease of multi-factorial origin that develops from the interaction of social, psychological, behavioral, metabolic, cellular, and molecular factors [ 70 ].

It is the condition under which adipose tissue is increased and can be defined as an increase in body weight that results in excessive fat accumulation. In the last years, several studies have proposed that obesity might be an inflammatory disorder [ 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]. In addition, oxidative stress has been suggested as a potential inducer of inflammatory status and susceptibility to obesity and related disorders [ 70 , 71 , 75 ].

One possible strategy to reduce oxidative stress, inflammation and insulin resistance is consumption of antioxidant rich diet. A diet with high total antioxidant capacity has been found inversely related to central adiposity, metabolic and oxidative stress bio-markers, and risk for cardiovascular diseases [ 76 , 77 , 78 ]. Thus it is postulated that saffron directly or indirectly can inhibit obesity pathophysiology by working as an anti-inflammatory compound alone or fat reducing agent in parallel.

Although possible weight loss effect of saffron and its mechanism of action is not clear yet, saffron extract has a promising potential as an anti-obesity herbal medication through different biological functions which can be classified into four major categories including: 1 decreasing calorie intake by blocking dietary fat digestion via inhibiting pancreatic lipase; 2 acting as an antioxidant and suppressing inflammatory cytokines and adipocyte differentiation; 3 suppressing food intake by increasing satiety, or the feeling of fullness due to raising the level of neurotransmitters or hormonal functions; and 4 enhancing glucose and lipid metabolism all of which were briefly pointed out in section 3.

Figure 2 shows a schematic of our postulation in potential anti-obesity effect of saffron based on the data from previous studies that were reviewed in section 3 earlier in the discussion on biological properties of saffron. Antioxidant-rich saffron compounds may modulate obesity and associated metabolic disorders.

Despite the lack of supporting evidence on possible weight loss effect of saffron in obese individuals, current knowledge about properties of saffron suggests that saffron supplementation will be at least responsible for lowering the risk of over snacking-diet associated with obesity or promoting weight loss in overweight individuals.

Due to lack of research on evaluating the efficacy of saffron as an anti-obesity medication and clarifying the possible mechanism of action, both pre-clinical and clinical studies are warranted to demonstrate its full health potential. This review article is based on research work supported by the Universiti Putra Malaysia under grant No.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Antioxidants Basel v. Antioxidants Basel. Published online Oct Find articles by Maryam Mashmoul.

Find articles by Barakatun Nisak Mohd Yusof. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Obesity is associated with various diseases, particularly diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis and heart disease. Keywords: saffron, antioxidant, crocin, obesity, overweight, weight loss. Introduction Obesity and overweight are global problems since they can lead to complications associated with human health, and they can raise the risk of many diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers, hypertension and dyslipidemia [ 1 ].

Open in a separate window. Figure 1. Chemical composition of the most active constituents of saffron. General Characteristics of Crocin Crocin Crocetin di-gentiobiose ester has been detected as the most prominent chemical constituent isolated from the saffron voluble spice and from the less expensive Gardenia fruit Gardenia Jasminoides Ellis [ 24 , 25 ].

Crocin Absorption, Bioavailability and Toxicity Studies showed that crocin is not absorbed throughout the gastrointestinal tract.

Biological Properties of Saffron Saffron is used in natural medicine as anti-catarrhal, anti-spasmodic, nerve sedative, gingival seda-tive, diaphoretic, carminative and expectorant [ 15 ]. Table 1 Major biological properties of saffron attributed to potential anti-obesity effect.