16-21<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:
" times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;letter-spacing:-.1pt;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Cancer is still considered as one of the most life
threatening cause responsible for a huge number of annual deaths around the
world. Particularly, leukemia is difficult to be cured. In this context, free
radicals are one of the factors that cause or predispose to cancer. Hence, they
should be controlled in the body by prophylactic or curative treatments. The
aim of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative effect against human
acute lymphoblastic T-cell leukemia (Jurkat cell line) of the Lebanese
saffron (Crocus sativus L.; Family Iridacea), and to detect which
components of saffron are responsible for the growth inhibitor. Lebanese
saffron decreased cell growth of Jurkat cells in a dose dependent
manner. A mixture of crocin and safranal also decreased the number of Jurkat
cells and the IC50 value of this mixture was lower than that of the
whole saffron extract.</span