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Saffron
Saffron Spices: Saffron, is the world's most expensive spice by weight. Often called 'The Golden Spice', saffron has a history rooted in antiquity. Saffron is used as a culinary seasoning and to colour, cottage cheese, chicken and meat, rise, mayonnaise, liquors and cordials. It is also used in speciality breads, cakes, confectionaries. It has always held a very special place for its extraordinary medicinal and flavoring properties as well as for being a striking yellow dye. Saffron's aroma is unique and there is no substitute for it. Saffron is more important in Central Asia and Northern India and is used extensively for rice dishes. Indian sweets like, kheer, ras malai, Indian yogurt drink (lassi), butter lassi (makhaniya lassi) have an everlasting culinary impression due to the saffron added to it. It is water-soluble and when added to the dish, gives a pure and homogeneous color.

Saffron Health: Saffron is an important ingredient of large number of Ayurvedic medicines. It is considered an ideal Tridoshhara and a drug of immense efficacy in disorders of children. It is used in acne, apoplexy, arthritis, asthma, colic, cough dyspepsia, liver disorders, mental disorders, painful menstruation, phthisis. It is attributed with extraordinary properties for improving weak eyesight and highly valued as a complexion builder. It is used to regulate the menstrual cycle, to decrease milk flow in lactating women, aid in treating hot flashes and is used as a deodorant.

Description
Saffron, the most expensive spice in the world is derived from the dry stigmata of the plant Crocus Sativus. The plant is a bulbous, perennial with globular corms, 15-20 cm high. It has 6 to 10 leaves present at anthesis, one to two flowers with a lilac-purple colour with perianth segments of 3.5 – 5 cm and style branches of 2.5 – 3.2 cm. The yellow style is deeply divided into three branches and the stigmata are bright red. Flowers are arising directly from the corms. Flowers have tri-lobed stigma, which along with the style tops yield the saffron of commerce.

Origin and Distribution
Saffron is a native of Southern Europe and cultivated in Mediterranean countries, particularly in Spain, Austria, France, Greece, England, Turkey, Iran. In India, it is cultivated in Jammu & Kashmir and in Himachal Pradesh.

Saffron thrives best in warm sub-tropical climate. In Spain, it is grown in dry temperate conditions with an annual rainfall below 40 cm. It grows at an elevation of 2000 mtrs MSL. Photoperiod exerts a considerable influence in the flowering of saffron. An optimum period of 11 hours illumination is desirable. Unusually low temperature coupled with high humidity during flowering season affects flowering of the crop. Spring rains boost production of new corms. Slightly acidic to neutral, gravelly, loamy, sandy soils are suitable for saffron cultivation.

USES

Saffron is used as a culinary seasoning and to colour, cottage cheese, chicken and meat, rise, mayonnaise, liquors and cordials. It is also used in speciality breads, cakes, confectionaries, Mughlai dishes. Saffron is also used as a perfume in cosmetics.

In medicine saffron is used in fevers, melancholia, and enlargement of liver and spleen. In Ayurvedic medicine it is used to heal arthritis, impotence and infertility. It has wide range of uses in Chinese and Tibetan medicines.

Botanical name	Family name	Commercial part
Crocus sativus L.	Iridaceae	Stigma

Indian Names
Hindi	: Zaffran
Bengali	: Jafran
Gujarati	: Keshar
Kannada	: Kumnkuma kesari
Kashmiri	: Kong
Malayalam	: Kunkumapoove
Marathi	: Keshar, Kesara
Punjabi	: Kesar, Zafran
Sanskrit	: Keshara, Kunkuma, Aruna, Asra, Asrika
Tamil	: Kungumapoo
Urdu	: Zafran, Jafranekar

Name in international languages

Spanish	: Azafran
French	: Safran
German	: Safran
Swedish	: Saffran
Arabic	: Zafran
Dutch	: Saffraan
Italian	: Zafferano
Portuguese	: Acofrao
Russian	: Shafran
Japanese	: Safuran
Chinese	: Fan Hung-Hua
Further Reading: Sensory quality: Nutty and pleasant. Composition: The intensive colour of saffron is caused by pigments of carotenoid type. Although saffron contains some conventional carotenoids (a- and ß-carotene, lycopin and zeaxanthin), its staining capability is mostly caused by crocetine esters; crocetin is a dicarboxylic acid with a carotenoid-like C18 backbone which is formed from carotenoid precursors (“diterpene carotenoid”). Crocin, a diester of crocin with gentobiose, is the single most important saffron pigment. In the essential oil (max. 1%), several terpene aldehydes and ketones are found. The most abundant constituent is safranal, 2,6,6-trimethyl 1,3-cyclohexadiene-1-carbaldehyde (50% and more); another olfactorily important compound is 2-hydroxy 4,4,6-trimethyl 2,5-cyclohexadien-1-one. Furthermore, terpene derivatives have been identified (pinene, cineol). The bitter taste is attributed to picrocrocin, the glucoside of an alcohol structurally related to safranal (4-hydroxy 2,4,4-trimethyl 1-cyclohexene-1-carboxaldehyde ). On de-glucosylation, picrocrocin yields safranal. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. Saffron’s aroma is unique and there is no substitute for it, but if unavailable, vanilla, kewra water, rose water or tonka beans are possible alternatives for saffron in sweets and cakes. Half a teaspoon of saffron (which might well be a fifth of a gram) is, for example, enough for one liter of saffron custard, provided the saffron is of reasonable quality. There are several other plants that can give a yellow or orange colour to the food; yet none of these has the hypnotic fragrance of true saffron. Saffron can retain its aroma in ground state better than many herbs, if it is kept dry and cool. Old European recipes sometimes prescribe astronomical amounts of saffron, but in today’s Europe saffron plays a minor rôle. It is, however, used for several Mediterranean dishes, often in connection with fish and seafood: Famous examples are the Italian risotto alla Milanese (moist short-grain rice with bone marrow), the Provençal fish soup bouillabaisse and the Spanish national dish, paella Valenciana (spicy dry short-grain rice with seafood or chicken). Furthermore, saffron appears in a few European cake recipes, where it is used both for flavour and for colour. Saffron is more important in Central Asia and Northern India, where it is used extensively for rice dishes. Northern Indian biriyani is a fragrant and aromatic rice dishe, usually with chicken or mutton, which is intensively flavoured by saffron in conjunction with Indian bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, star anise and nutmeg or mace; they are frequently decorated with nut or almond pieces and dried raisins or pomegranate seeds. The combination of saffron with peppermint in biriyanis of Persian style is especially delightful. Similar rice pots, in which saffron is combined with a hint of pungency, are found in the countries surrounding the Gulf of Arabia. Indian sweets (kheer, ras malai) are sometimes prepared with saffron; there is a sweet saffron rice dish called zarda, which is prepared by Indian Muslims at the end of the fasting month and also enjoyed on other festive occasions. Saffron even sometimes shows up in the famous Indian yoghurt drink lassi. Saffron-flavoured butter lassi (makhaniya lassi) is an everlasting culinary impression for everybody visiting India. Saffron is rather unique among spices in that its main aroma and colour components are water-soluble; therefore, the stigmata may be soaked overnight in water, filtered and the water then added, which gives a pure and homogeneous colour. Another method is preferred in Persia and India: The spice is powdered and then extracted with a little milk; after half an hour, the milk has the deep colour of egg yolk and is added to biriyanis or sweets. Using the dry spice (whether ground or as a whole) directly for cooking is not favourable, as it releases its fragrance too slowly, and prolonged cooking should be avoided for loss of aroma. Thus, it is best to prepare an extract with cold liquid and add that extract to the hot foods.