Safranal is the special volatile aroma compound of saffron.Safranal has neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects and has the potential for Parkinson's disease research.

At first, the potential toxic effect of safranal on OLN-93 viability was evaluated. Also, the cells were pretreated with safranal (0.1, 1, 10, 50, 100 and 200 μM) for 2 h and then subjected to glutamic acid (16 mM) or quinolinic acid (8 mM) toxicity for 24 h, in which the same treatments were applied. Results: Safranal at concentration ranges of 1-800 μM had no toxic effect on cell viability (p>0.05). Treatment with safranal significantly increased cell viability following glutamic acid or quinolinic acid insults at concentrations higher than 1 μM (p<0.01). The cytoprotective potential of safranal was also accompanied by decreased ROS accumulation (p<0.001) and malondialdehyde level (p<0.001) following glutamic acid or quinolinic acid insults. The data suggests that safranal exhibits oligoprotection potential by means of inhibiting oxidative stress parameters.

Safranal (200-500 mg/kg; PO; for 7 days) slightly restores colon length and reduces weight loss percentage, significantly lowering the DAI score[2].