Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

SAFFRON QUALITY: EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL
PRACTICES, PROCESSING AND STORAGE
STELLA A. ORDOUDI AND MARIA Z. TSIMIDOU
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Chemistry, Laboratory of Food Chemistry and
Technology, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
1.1. History
1. INTRODUCTION
Saffron, the most expensive spice worldwide, is comprised of the dried stigmas of
the plant Crocus sativus Linnaeus of the Iridaceae family, a sterile triploid not found
in the wild.
According to the definition given by FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation)
it forms ‘a loosely matted mass of dark, reddish-brown flattened threads, amongst
which a few narrower yellow ones can be distinguished. The upper, enlarged part
of the flattened threads is the stigma of the flower, the lower narrower portion is
the style’ (FAO, 1986).
Saffron is mainly used as a spice that imparts colour to food but its medicinal
and dyeing properties are also well known and appreciated.
C. cartwrightianus, a possible progenitor of C. sativus, as well as more than
80 other species belonging to genus Crocus originate from the eastern Mediterranean
basin from where the cultivation of the plant was spread to other parts of the ‘Old
World’. Many of the Crocus species occur in the Aegean islands and Crete (Greece)
that may be considered as ‘the birthplace’ of the cultivated plant, highly appreciated
in the early civilizations of those areas for its exceptional properties. Famous
fresco fragments exhibited today in the archaeological museums in Heraklion (Crete),
Santorini and that in Athens offer evidence for the ritual significance and the use
of Crocus plant in the every day life of the prehistorical natives. In addition,
written information on pottery tablets give unequivocal evidence for the participation
of the plant material in the economy of the Cretan kings of Knossos (1500–1450
B.C). The small amounts of the final product, the dried stigmas, reported on those
records, equivalent to a few grams up to half a kilo, indicate that it commanded
continually through the centuries an exceptional high commercial price.
The ancient Greek name ‘krokos’ survived in the current language of this
small country to characterise both the plant and the spice whereas the word saffron
of Arabic (or old French?) roots (that means ‘yellow’) that may dates even back
to the Assyrian empire (2300 B.C) and comes from the name of a town called
Azupirano (Saffron town) (Basker and Negbi, 1983) is used in many languages
(‘safran’ in French and German, ‘saufuran’ in Japanese, ‘azafran’ in Spanish, ‘zafora’
in Greek). The Hebrew word found in Bible is ‘karkom’ and the Chinese names
are ‘fan-hong-hua’ (foreign red flower) or ‘zang-hong-hua’ (Tibet red flower).
209
R. Dris and S. M. Jain (eds.), Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops,
Vol. 1, “Preharvest Practice”, pp. 209–260.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.