Background and aims Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is chronic autoimmune diseases, which inducing the cartilage obliteration, synovial joints destruction and typically producing the symmetrical inflammation, which further leads to disability, demolition and deformity into the joint. The aim of the current study was to scrutinise the anti-arthritic potential of crocetin in formaldehyde induced inflammation and complete freund’s adjuvant (CFA) induced arthritis.

Methods Formaldehyde used for the induction of acute inflammation and CFA used for induction the arthritis. Both method, the rats were divided into different groups and each group contains the 6 rats. The different doses of crocetin (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg) was used in this model. The body weight, arthritic index were scrutinised at regular interval. Hepatic and antioxidant parameter were determined, respectively.

Results Crocetin dose dependently reduced joint inflammation as support via reduce the joint diameter and decreased inflammatory cell infiltration. Crocetin showed the improvement the synovium redox status (down-regulation in MDA and GSH and boost the CAT and SOD level). Crocetin significantly reduced the expression of inflammatory marker viz., TNF-α. Crocetin enhanced The HO-1/Nrf-2 and reduced the NF-κB mRNA expression in adjuvant joint. Additionally, crocetin treatment decreased the expression of degrading enzymes such AS MMP-3 and MMP-9 in adjuvant induced arthritic rats.

Conclusions Collectively, we can conclude that crocetin showed the anti-arthritic effect via down-regulating the NF-κB and Nrf-2/HO-1 pathway.