Saffron is one of the highly prized spices known since antiquity for its color, flavor and medicinal properties. It is the dried "stigma" or threads of the flower of the S. crocus plant. The plant is a bulbous perennial plant that belongs to the family of iridaceae of the genus, Crocus and known botanically as Crocus sativus. This exotic spice is a native of Southern Europe and now cultivated worldwide in many countries, particularly in Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, and Iran and in Jammu & Kashmir state of India.
The Crocus sativus plant grows to about 15-20cm in height and bears lavender colored flowers during each season, which lasts from October until November. Each flower features perianth, which consists of stalk, known as “style”, connecting to the three “stigmas” or threads to the rest of the plant. These orange-yellow colored stigmas along with the style constitute "saffron" which is used as spice.
Good crop production demands cool dry climate with well-drained rich fertile soil and irrigation facilities or sufficient amount of rain fall. The flowers are generally harvested during the early morning hours and soon the stigma separated, allowed to dry and packed for marketing.
Saffron has distinct flavor because of the chemical components in it picrocrocin and safranal. It also contains a natural carotenoid chemical compound, crocin, which gives saffron its golden-yellow hue. These traits along with its medicinal properties make it a valuable ingredient in many foods worldwide.
Health benefits of Saffron
Saffron contains many plant derived chemical compounds that are known to have anti-oxidant, disease preventing and health promoting properties. The flower stigma are composed of many essential volatile oils but the most important being safranal, which gives saffron its distinct hay-like flavor.
Other volatile oils in saffron are cineole, phenethenol, pinene, borneol, geraniol, limonene, p-cymene, linalool, terpinen-4-oil, etc. This spice has many non-volatile active components; the most important of them is α-crocin, a carotenoid compound, which gives the stigmas their characteristic golden yellow color. It also contains other carotenoids including zeaxanthin, lycopene, α- and β-carotenes. These are important antioxidants that helps protect body from oxidant-induced stress, cancers, infections and acts as immune modulators.
The active components in saffron have many therapeutic applications in many traditional medicines as antiseptic, antidepressant, anti-oxidant, digestive, anti-convulsant. This novel spice is a good source of minerals like copper, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, selenium, zinc and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure.
Manganese and copper are used by the body as co-factors for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is essential for red blood cell production and as a co-factor for cytochrome oxidases enzymes. It is also rich in many vital vitamins including vitamin A, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin-C that are essential for optimum health.