Saffron

Saffron is an aromatic and very expensive spice by weight, is known as “King of spices” and “red gold” and utilised for cooking, staining, medicine, cosmetics and some other purposes. It is a native plant of Southeast Asia. However, exact origin is uncertain, but was probably Asia Minor, where it has a long history of cultivation and is thus widely dispersed, and ultimately to China and Japan.
 

The saffron was probably known to the ancient Middle Eastern civilizations of Babylon and Assyria, as the name krokos predates Greek. Saffron was originally made from the dried stigmas of wild plants known as Crocus cartwrightianus and traded by the Phoenicians, and valued by the Persians, Greeks and Romans, and used for colour and spice foods, saffron water to perfume their baths, houses and temples, and an extract of saffron as a medicinal narcotic.
 

Author: Dr. Chandra Shekhar Gupta

Senior Research Fellow
Plant Quarantine Division
National Bearue of Plant Genetic Resources
Pusa Campus, New Delhi