Retraction Notice: Use of in vitro assays to assess the potential antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in human lung cancer cell line

At the request of the Journal Editor and Sage the following article has been retracted:

Samarghandian S., Boskabady MHossein, Davoodi S. Use of in vitro assays to assess the potential antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in human lung cancer cell line. Pharmacognosy Magazine. 2010; 6(24): 309–314. 10.4103/0973-1296.71799

A reader contacted Sage with concerns about the images in the article. During investigation, Sage became aware of concerns raised on Pubpeer regarding the figures in the article:

Pubpeer post 1

Pubpeer post 2

Pubpeer post 3

The concerns raised were:

Panel A L929 from Figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar to Panel B L929 of Figure 4 ¹

Panel C L929 from Figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar to Panel A L929 of Figure 4 ¹

Panel A L929 from figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar to Panel 1b of Figure 2 ²

Panel C L929 from Figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar to Panel 1c of Figure 2 ²

Panel B L929 from Figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar Panel 1d of Figure 2 ²

Panel B A549 from Figure 3 ¹ appears to be highly similar Panel C of Fig. 2 ³

When contacted for comment, the authors acknowledged the duplication and explained that any overlap may be the result of an error in figure creation.

The authors were unable to provide the raw images and raw data underlying these figures. They noted this was due to the length of time passed since the research was conducted.

Due to unresolved concerns around the integrity of these images that call into question the validity of the findings the Journal Editor retracts the article.

The authors did not respond