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Saffron

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Essentials of Medicinal and Aromatic Crops

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Abstract

Saffron, the king of condiments, is the dried crimson stigma of Crocus sativus L. It is an autumn-flowering herbaceous plant that belongs to the family Iridaceae. C. sativus is traditionally used as medicine in Chinese, Ayurvedic, Persian, and Unani medicinal systems. Mainly, it is grown in Afghanistan, Morocco, Iran, India, Spain and Italy. It is estimated that approximately 418 t year−1 saffron is produced on 121,338 ha, worldwide. The plant is triploid and is mostly cultivated through corms. Soil quality, temperature, photoperiod, and topographical areas are the key environmental factors influencing the production of saffron. Its popularity is increasing due to its intriguing uses in food, medicine, and cosmetics. Among spices it is the most expensive, because of the presence of three bioactive constituents namely crocin, safranal and picrocrocincin. This chapter includes the study of qualitative, economic, agronomic, ethnobotanical, and medicinal aspects of saffron.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Lahore college for women university, Lahore, Pakistan

    Sana Javed, Samina Hanif, Arusa Aftab & Zubaida Yousaf

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, Romania

    Marius Moga

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  1. Sana Javed
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  2. Samina Hanif
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  3. Arusa Aftab
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  4. Zubaida Yousaf
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  5. Marius Moga
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Correspondence to Arusa Aftab or Zubaida Yousaf .

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  1. Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq

  2. Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Arwa Abdulkreem AL-Huqail

  3. Department of Pharmacy, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Sheringal Dir Upper, Pakistan

    Muhammad Riaz

  4. Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Government College University, Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan

    Umar Farooq Gohar

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Javed, S., Hanif, S., Aftab, A., Yousaf, Z., Moga, M. (2023). Saffron. In: Zia-Ul-Haq, M., Abdulkreem AL-Huqail, A., Riaz, M., Farooq Gohar, U. (eds) Essentials of Medicinal and Aromatic Crops. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35403-8_42

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