Saffron

[Foreigner]

I just tried making saffron tea for other health reasons for the first time, as it was recommended to me. I bought some at the corner market. All I did was put 20-25 strands in a cup of hot water and let it steep for a half hour. It was a bit bitter so I had it with supper.

About 45 minutes later and I actually feel high from this stuff? It's clearly psychoactive. A tad euphoric, and I feel horny... which for me is awesome because my libido has been non-existent lately. It also seems to activate circulation in the abdomen, everything from the diaphragm down is warm. I'm mind altered enough that my plans to drive to a shopping mall have been canceled because I don't trust myself driving in this state. I'm sensitive to chemicals, but still... this should tell you how altered I am.

I've done a BL search for past discussions about it, but they're as old as 2006. Hoping there's more recent info on it. All I've been doing is researching the traditional uses for medicine. Apparently safrole has a sympathomimetic quality to it, but I can see why this plant has a relationship to the MDxx drugs.

Concerns:
- there is talk of toxicity / canrcinogenicity with frequent use; some sites say this is exaggerated because the studies done on it used the usual obscene amounts injected directly into rats
- liver toxicity with excessive use (but based on similar studies as above)
- brain burnout just like the MDxx class of drugs, downers, etc... I hope I don't feel like shit tomorrow
- in general, seems to have similar suggested negative side effects to MDxx drugs, though over the long term

I took it because it was recommended for increasing bowel circulation, and it might help with depression. It's expensive as hell, but at these quantities a small amount goes far.

Does anyone have the research on this? (I thought of posting this to the neuroscience section but wanted to start here. Mods feel free to move.)

 

[Mysterie]

im not sure if you found this thread on longecity

from the op:

Saffron has been shown to help depression in a few studies. The main constituents that seem to come into play here are crocin and safranal. There doesn't seem to be a ton of information on what they are doing, but this article (http://www.actahort.org/books/650/650_54.htm) suggests, "Crocin may act via the uptake inhibition of dopamine and norepinephrine, and safranal via serotonin." The article "Saffron in phytotherapy: Pharmacology and clinical uses" seemed to go into some more detail, mentioning also an effect on NDMA receptors, but I can't get the full text of it. I was also seeing that safranal acted as an anxiolytic in some articles, perhaps involving GABA-A (http://www.mums.ac.ir/shares/basic_medical/basicmedjou/2012/saffron/a5.pdf)

 

[Foreigner]

Saw it... but there's no talk of how it compares to MDMA in terms of serotonergic down-regulation, just that it seems to be long lasting.

I like how it feels but I don't want to fry myself from over use.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Saw it... but there's no talk of how it compares to MDMA in terms of serotonergic down-regulation, just that it seems to be long lasting.

I like how it feels but I don't want to fry myself from over use.

It only has a very mild re-uptake inhibition of serotonin

The second paper linked above performed multiple steps that clearly show the activity of safranal is at the GABA-A /Benzodiazepine sub-complex sites on the GABA receptor.

It's action is GABA agonism, possibly along with some dopaminergic activity from the increased serotonin caused by reuptake inhibition.

I would be more concerned about withdrawal that would be like coming off benzos if abused.

 

[Foreigner]

So not for regular use then. Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

The last thing I need is a drunken effect on a daily basis.

I wonder why so many websites (even professional ones) tout it as an excellent anti-depressant if it has withdrawal potential?

 

[Dresden]

Are you talking about sassafras or saffron? Because they are two totally different substances.

 

[Foreigner]

Saffron.

I'm aware they're different. Nowhere in this thread did I mention sassafras.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Saffron.

I'm aware they're different. Nowhere in this thread did I mention sassafras.

I think some of the "high" you experienced was either interaction with RX meds -- or placebo expectation.

 

[Amml]

Saffron is known for making good mood. If used in very high doses it can really make high, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you use it as spice, it also works perfectly

 

[DixiChik]

Very interesting, as I could certainly use help with GI problems and the despair that rides shotgun.

 

[Foreigner]

Saffron is known for making good mood. If used in very high doses it can really make high, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you use it as spice, it also works perfectly.

It's just that all RX anxiolytics, to my knowledge, are sedating. It's hard to find stimulant anxiolytics, of which MDMA is one. It seems like saffron may be another. I am just concerned about long-term effects but there's no research on this.

I think some of the "high" you experienced was either interaction with RX meds -- or placebo expectation.

Uh... no.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Uh... no.

Umm yeah - really.

The concentration of possible active compounds isn't enough from what you prepared to have a true effect.

 

[augustaB]

If saffron was that good I'm sure we'd all be growing crocusses in our gardens.

 

[LandsUnknown]

There are other threads out there pointing to possible psychoactive effects of it, but it isn't well documented. The best was this link: http://entheology.com/plants/crocus-sativus-saffron-crocus/. This site seems to indicate that it is psychoactive, but the exorbitant price has simply curtailed it's use as a drug. I haven't had any experiences with it to say one way or another, but I'm going to try it for sure. A local source of various supplements which I cannot mention due to the terms of service sells it in pill form.

 

[Jabberwocky]

There are other threads out there pointing to possible psychoactive effects of it, but it isn't well documented. The best was this link: http://entheology.com/plants/crocus-sativus-saffron-crocus/. This site seems to indicate that it is psychoactive, but the exorbitant price has simply curtailed it's use as a drug. I haven't had any experiences with it to say one way or another, but I'm going to try it for sure. A local source of various supplements which I cannot mention due to the terms of service sells it in pill form.

I don't believe that providing name or link to businesses that sell vitamins and dietary supplements violates any terms of service.

I posted a link to Amazon for mixed ascorbate salts (Vitamin C) -- as in the actual vitamin, not fish-scale

"Do not attempt to sell, buy or find sources for drugs through Bluelight"

 

[Mysterie]

idk if this helps at all but my mum gave me this last week and i think i'll start taking it, small synchronicity

nurobalance from bioceuticals

 

[GoNova]

It's just that all RX anxiolytics, to my knowledge, are sedating. It's hard to find stimulant anxiolytics, of which MDMA is one. It seems like saffron may be another. I am just concerned about long-term effects but there's no research on this.



Uh... no.

I know this is an old thread but don’t you just love it when pompous addicts tell you what YOU are experiencing is not real just because their own drug addled brains can’t comprehend anything but the most potent of pharmaceuticals. Anyway the reason I replied to such an old thread is that I was wondering if you have continued to use saffron and what has been your experience since.

 

[GoNova]

lol what kind of knowledge are you speaking from? Are you a mind reader too? It’s been studied extensively and has been proven to be v effective.

Umm yeah - really.

The concentration of possible active compounds isn't enough from what you prepared to have a true effect.

lol the expert has chimed in. Everybody listen up, u you all have no idea what you’re feeling until this guy tells you it’s actually been studied extensively and been proven to be very effective and I can attest. What do you know about other people’s thresholds anyway. Don’t be a pompous know it all. In my experience the people who say things like you are the ones who have broken their brains due to hard drugs use and can no longer appreciate the natural world. Is that who you are?

 

[Foreigner]

I know this is an old thread but don’t you just love it when pompous addicts tell you what YOU are experiencing is not real just because their own drug addled brains can’t comprehend anything but the most potent of pharmaceuticals. Anyway the reason I replied to such an old thread is that I was wondering if you have continued to use saffron and what has been your experience since.

Well, the placebo effect is real and has to be accounted for in medical research.... but the thing is, I didn't know what the effects of saffron supposedly were before I started drinking it as a tea. The "benefits" I took it for were mostly related to warming because I heard it could "warm the channels" (from a Chinese medicine perspective). The mood lifting aspect was not known to me.

While I don't think Jabberwocky was going out of their way to make drug users look incompetent, I do notice a growing pseudoscience trend of telling people their experiences weren't real if those experiences aren't mirrored or verified in health studies. For example, I've had doctors tell me that there's no way I could be having reactions to small amounts of drugs and when I tell them I'm very sensitive they just don't believe me. Then the physiological effects (heart rate, blood pressure, and other effects like facial flushing, sweating, etc) can be measured and they are astonished.

The problem is medical statistics. The vast majority of the population fall within the normal bell curve. Yet there are always outliers in the margins. Doctors are good at working with the normal bell curve, but they have really random and unpredictable behaviours toward outliers. They disbelieve, ignore, deny, overlook, pacify or explain away, don't care about, or even openly ridicule outliers. Yet those outliers clearly exist in the data. It's weird.

But yeah... non-clinicians trying to tell you on the internet that your experience was just placebo... they have no way of verifying that.

 

[snmfmy]

Well, the placebo effect is real and has to be accounted for in medical research.... but the thing is, I didn't know what the effects of saffron supposedly were before I started drinking it as a tea. The "benefits" I took it for were mostly related to warming because I heard it could "warm the channels" (from a Chinese medicine perspective). The mood lifting aspect was not known to me.

While I don't think Jabberwocky was going out of their way to make drug users look incompetent, I do notice a growing pseudoscience trend of telling people their experiences weren't real if those experiences aren't mirrored or verified in health studies. For example, I've had doctors tell me that there's no way I could be having reactions to small amounts of drugs and when I tell them I'm very sensitive they just don't believe me. Then the physiological effects (heart rate, blood pressure, and other effects like facial flushing, sweating, etc) can be measured and they are astonished.

The problem is medical statistics. The vast majority of the population fall within the normal bell curve. Yet there are always outliers in the margins. Doctors are good at working with the normal bell curve, but they have really random and unpredictable behaviours toward outliers. They disbelieve, ignore, deny, overlook, pacify or explain away, don't care about, or even openly ridicule outliers. Yet those outliers clearly exist in the data. It's weird.

But yeah... non-clinicians trying to tell you on the internet that your experience was just placebo... they have no way of verifying that.

Nobody said your experience wasn't real, they just said that it wasn't due to any psychoactive effect from a particular substance.

I would never tell somebody they didn't experience something, however if they took 0.1 mg of Valium and said that they felt completely sedated I would say that it wasn't from the Valium, categorically.

When you look at the actual scientific evidence and you see that the dose of safranal needed to provide protection to pentylenetetrazol seizure was 145 mg per kilogram, you realize that from the 25 pieces of saffron that you made tea from you weren't going to get any appreciable benzodiazepine like sedating effect.

The following paper describes administration of safranal (the main essential oil distilled from saffron) at 90 mg , 180 mg, and 360 mg per kilogram to mice to determine if it increased sleep in mice that were given pentobarbital.

90 mg per kilogram did not cause any change meaning it had no activity.

180mg/kg did elicit a response.

Even if you allometrically scale that to a human by a factor of 10 that means a 70 kg would need
1260 mg or 1.26 G. Of actual safranal essential oil to get that effect. We could say that somewhere between .62 and 1.26 g would be needed, neither of which you would approach from your saffron tea.

Now this does not mean you didn't experience something. It just means that all evidence points to the fact that it was something other than the effects of saffron that caused you to feel relaxed, considering the safranal content of saffron stigma is from 0.2 to.22 percent.