Pharmactive’s saffron can reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents

15 Jun 2020 --- The teenage years are “already difficult,” but the COVID-19 crisis has intensified the situation, according to natural ingredients producer Pharmactive. As the virus keeps adolescents worldwide confined at home, their mental health continues to be at risk from extended isolation. Addressing this, Pharmactive reaffirms its affron Spanish saffron can help reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in teenagers. Moreover, amid a surge in demand for natural products, affron delivers an all-natural, clinically-proven holistic way to improve mental health status.

“Due to the current situation, consumers’ priorities have changed and anxiety and stress are ever more prevalent. It’s so relevant during social isolation when kids report that they feel lonely, sad and are experiencing a lot of stress,” Julia Díaz, Head of Marketing at Pharmactive tells NutritionInsight.

Affron is the first saffron extract clinically studied on adolescents. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of adolescents aged 12-16 years with mild-to-moderate symptoms, affron improved anxiety and depressive symptoms in the test subjects when taken over eight weeks.

Díaz affirms that affron can help adolescents cope not only with stress, but also sleep troubles.Díaz affirms that affron can help adolescents cope not only with stress, but also sleep troubles. Another company-issued clinical study found that affron saffron extract helped reduce overall insomnia by 25 percent, while subjects reported less difficulty falling asleep and a less interrupted slumber. NutritionInsight previously covered how consumers are increasingly turning to natural ingredients to address their mental health. Fear of COVID-19 may not only take its toll on mental health but consequently also compromise the immune system.

Affordable saffron?
While the final price can vary a lot depending on the country of purchase, affron saffron is “not among the cheapest supplements,” Díaz flags, but for a good reason. “It is among the more clinically studied and effective ones. Hence, affron is worth a special price for a unique effect. We are sure parents will value this point. It is clean label, locally grown and organic certified,” she asserts.

Díaz adds that Pharmactive extracts the saffron at a very high concentration of over 3.5 percent lepticrosalides to maximize effectiveness. Standardization circumvents the problem of ingredient variation entirely. Moreover, the ingredient exhibits the lowest dosage threshold on the market – just 28 mg per day – due to its high bioavailability and rapid one-hour average absorption rate.

“Affron possesses a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory impact. It not only helps balance key neurotransmitters levels, such as serotonin and dopamine, but also fights the oxidative stress produced by anxiety and stress in the brain,” explains Alberto Espinel, Manager of Strategic R&D in Active and Functional Natural Ingredients for Pharmactive. 

Investigations into the use of herbal and nutraceutical agents for youth are limited considering ethical committees are more strict with research conducted on minors. Parental approval notably needs to be taken into consideration, which can make testing more complicated, Díaz maintains.

“This gap in scientific exploration is what inspired our study of affron with adolescents. However, they carry significant potential that has yet to be realized,” Espinel concludes.

By Anni Schleicher