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Depressive disorders are very common in clinical practice, with approximately 11.3 of all adults afflicted during any a year. Saffron is the world's most expensive spice and apart from its traditional value as a food additive, recent studies indicate several therapeutic effects for saffron. It is used for depression in Persian traditional medicine. Our objective was to compare the efficacy of hydro-alcoholic extract of Crocus sativus (stigma) with fluoxetine in the treatment of mild to moderate depression in a 6-week double-blind, randomized trial. Forty adult outpatients who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition for major depression based on the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV and with mild to moderate depression participated in the trial. In this double-blind, single-center trial and randomized trial, patients were randomly assigned to receive capsules of saffron 30mg/day (BD …