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WARNING: Always start with lower doses due to differences between individual body weight, tolerance, metabolism, and personal sensitivity. See responsible use section.
DISCLAIMER: PW's dosage information is gathered from users and resources for educational purposes only. It is not a recommendation and should be verified with other sources for accuracy.
Saffron contains several psychoactive components, including crocin, crocetin, safranal, trans-crocetin, trans-crocin, picrocrocin, and kaempferol, however crocins are converted to crocetin in the body, which appears to be responsible for the majority of saffron's effects, as well as safranal, which picrocrocin is converted to [2].
Saffron has a complex mechanism of action, and is shown to be a serotonin-dopamine-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, a monoamine oxidase A & B inhibitor, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, an NMDA antagonist, and a GABAa agonist. [3] Saffron contains multiple active compounds that are responsible for its effects, the most well characterised being crocin and safranal. Crocin is shown to be stimulating and have dopaminergic effects, and safranal tends to be more sedating and possibly serotonergic. [4]
Disclaimer: The effects listed below cite the Subjective Effect Index (SEI), an open research literature based on anecdotal user reports and the personal analyses of PsychonautWikicontributors. As a result, they should be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism.
It is also worth noting that these effects will not necessarily occur in a predictable or reliable manner, although higher doses are more liable to induce the full spectrum of effects. Likewise, adverse effects become increasingly likely with higher doses and may include addiction, severe injury, or death ☠.
The effects of saffron tend to be described as similar to stimulants and psychedelicmicrodoses. It is often used as a nootropic and to reduce symptoms associated with mental disorders like depression and ADHD.
Physical effects
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Stimulation - Saffron typically is stimulating in a similar but weaker manner to substances such as methylphenidate, and encourages physical activity
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Cognitive euphoria - Saffron is known to have powerful mood-enhancing effects and is often used as an antidepressant for this effect [7]
Insomnia - Saffron's stimulating effects can cause insomnia in some users, however this effect is generally mild, and some users report sleepiness from saffron rather than wakefulness, possibly due to varying concentrations of active compounds
Experience reports
There are currently 0 experience reports which describe the effects of this substance in our experience index.
This toxicity and harm potential section is a stub.
As a result, it may contain incomplete or even dangerously wrong information! You can help by expanding upon or correcting it. Note: Always conduct independent research and use harm reduction practices if using this substance.
Warning:Many psychoactive substances that are reasonably safe to use on their own can suddenly become dangerous and even life-threatening when combined with certain other substances. The following list provides some known dangerous interactions (although it is not guaranteed to include all of them).
Always conduct independent research (e.g. Google, DuckDuckGo, PubMed) to ensure that a combination of two or more substances is safe to consume. Some of the listed interactions have been sourced from TripSit.
