Saffron Petal, an Edible Byproduct of Saffron, Alleviates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis by Inhibiting Macrophage Activation and Regulating Gut Microbiota

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07915
• Publication Date: 2023-07-05T04:06:46Z
• Authors: Jiao Peng; Huan Deng; Bin Du; Peigen Wu; Lifang Duan; Ronghe Zhu; Ziwan Ning; Jinxiu Feng; Haitao Xiao
• Keywords: Proinflammatory cytokine

Saffron petal (SP) is an agricultural byproduct in the process of crude drug saffron, accounting for 90% dry weight saffron flowers. To promote utilization SP food and pharmaceutical industries, its anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated on LPS-activated RAW 264.7 cells DSS-challenged colitic mice. The results indicated that extract had a notable effect alleviating clinical manifestations colitis, such as reduction body weight, improvement disease activity index, mitigation colon shortening, alleviation tissue damage. Moreover, significantly suppressed macrophage infiltration activation, evidenced by decrease colonic F4/80 macrophages suppression transcription secretion tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) In vitro, also nitric oxide production, COX-2 iNOS expressions, TNF-α IL-1β activated cells. Network pharmacology-guided research identified downregulated Akt, p38, ERK, JNK phosphorylation vivo vitro. parallel, effectively corrected microbial dysbiosis increasing abundance Bacteroides acidifaciens, vulgatus, Lactobacillus murinus, gasseri. These findings indicate effectiveness treating colitis demonstrated ability to reduce inhibit PI3K/Akt MAPK pathways, regulate gut microbiota, suggesting holds great potential therapeutic option colitis.