Saffron: what the evidence actually shows

Reviewer and governance status are shown on each atomic claim below.

What it is

Saffron is tracked as a health intervention in this evidence graph. Also known as: crocus sativus, Crocus sativus.

Studied forms and doses

No form-specific catalog record is available. This does not mean all forms are equivalent.

mood: 30 mg/day; form not reported.
sleep: 30 mg/day; form not reported.
mood: commonly ~30 mg/day; form not reported.

Mechanisms

Mechanistic plausibility is context, not proof that a clinical outcome improves.

No structured mechanism is recorded.

⚠ Safety in context

No interaction record is modeled for this intervention. This is an unknown coverage state, not evidence that no interaction exists.

Products and verification

No product label snapshot is mapped in this released catalog. Ingredient evidence does not establish any bottle’s identity, potency, purity, availability, or value.

Evidence by outcome

moodgrade Bmoderate certainty— multiple RCTs show benefit for mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms, comparable to low-dose SSRIs in small trials

moodgrade Bmoderate certainty— Meta-analysis of 21 trials: saffron significantly reduced depression scores (Beck Depression Inventory) and anxiety scores (Beck Anxiety Inventory) versus control, plus improved sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). Effects on clinician-rated scales (Hamilton scales) and CRP were not significant — self-reported mood benefit is more consistent than clinician-rated or biomarker outcomes.

sleepgrade Clow certainty— small RCTs suggest improved sleep quality

People say · Evidence shows

“saffron is a natural antidepressant that works as well as medication”

aheadlargemechanistic speculation

Grade history

2026-07-16C → CSource correction by Claude (b2 garbage-source correction): replaced an off-topic search-fallback source (published before the pump's topica details →
2026-07-16B → BCorrection by Claude (gold-standard provenance sweep): live Postgres source drift replaced with the verified seed source set [pmid:34757208] details →
2026-07-16B → BMerged additional source by Claude (gold-standard provenance sweep): a distinct, independently-verified paper ("Saffron, as an adjunct thera details →

Re-review cadence: every 12 months (Grade A/B) · next scheduled by 2027-07-16 · methodology v1.

By outcome — the money pages

Is Saffron hype?

sources: PMID:34757208 · PMID:31987241 · PMID:36141931

Cite this page

Citation is encouraged. The proposed reuse license is CC-BY-4.0; status: pending-governance-ratification.

Plain-text citation

Substrate. Saffron: what the evidence actually shows. https://evidencebased.info/interventions/saffron. Updated 2026-07-16.

BibTeX

@misc{substrate_interventionssaffron,
  author = {Substrate editorial},
  title  = {Saffron: what the evidence actually shows},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://evidencebased.info/interventions/saffron},
  note   = {evidencebased.info}
}