Can Saffron Actually Treat Depression?
Thousands of years ago, Ayurveda called the coveted spice “heart-gladdening.” Modern science is putting that claim to the test.
“He gave me several hits of it at a film screening,” Yara Elmjouie, an Iranian American journalist, told The Juggernaut. “I ate and I licked it, kind of like you would have pixie powder.” Elmjouie wasn’t describing some illicit drug, but saffron, the world’s most expensive spice.
Both he and his friend Farhad Mohit (who wears a vial of saffron around his neck) are far from the only saffron enthusiasts. For centuries, Iranian medicine and Indian Ayurvedic texts alike prescribed the ancient spice, made from painstakingly harvesting the three bright crimson stigmas of the Crocus sativus flower to uplift the mood, steady the nerves, and bring joy. The West, which once scoffed at Eastern medicine, is finally catching up, with clinical trials, saffron lattes, and TikTok influencers talking up the benefits of “nature’s Prozac.” So is there any truth to the claim that saffron is nature’s best antidepressant? We spoke to experts to find out.