In a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) induced by intra-hippocampal micro-injection of amyloid-beta (Aβ1–40), safranal (0.025, 0.1, and 0.2 ml/kg/day, orally for a week) effects on learning and memory were assessed; findings showed that safranal modified the hippocampal levels of MDA, ROS, protein carbonyl, IL-6, IL-1β, NF-kB, TNF-α, apoptotic biomarkers, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), DNA fragmentation, myeloperoxidase (MPO) as well as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, and prevented CA1 neuronal loss. The gene discussed is GFAP; the disease is early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease.