Saffron (Crocus sativus L.), the king of spices: An overview

Cardone, Loriana; Castronuovo, Donato; Perniola, Michele; Cicco, Nunzia; Candido, Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2020.109560

Cited by 171 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Crocus sativus, native to Mediterranean and Western Asia, is cultivated for its highly valuable stigma. This costliest spice in the world is produced majorly in Iran, Spain, Morocco and India 1 . Due to its medicinal, cosmetic, culinary uses, laborious collection and cultivation process, one pound of dried stigma costs around 70 K INR 2 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field evaluation of PGP Bacillus sp. strain D5 native to Crocus sativus, in traditional and non traditional areas, and mining of PGP genes from its genome

Magotra

Bhagat

Ambardar

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Native Bacillus sp. strain D5 coded as (Bar D5) has been isolated from the saffron corm that showed plant growth promotion (PGP) properties and also inhibits the growth of corm rot causing Fusarium oxysporum R1 (Fox R1) in-vitro. Bar D5 was more efficient PGP bacterium in comparison to earlier reported native bio-formulations by our group. Pot assays and field evaluation of Bar D5 confirmed its in-vivo efficacy for PGP traits and biocontrol activity as well. Pot trials were followed by field trials at traditional (Kishtwar) and non-traditional (R.S Pura) saffron cultivation areas in Jammu and Kashmir. At both places, Bar D5 bio-formulation treatment led to the increase in root number & length, shoot number & length, flower number and number & weight of daughter corms. Additionally, it also decreased the corm rot disease incidence significantly. Priming of corms with bio-formulation resulted in the reduction of pathogenic fungal load by three fold at the depth of corm sowing from ground level. The shelf life/viability of Bar D5 based bio-formulation was found to be 52% (viable spores) for one year at room temperature. Draft genome sequence of Bar D5 revealed the presence of genes necessary for PGP and biocontrol activity. Further, confirmation of gene sequences and annotation was done by amplification, re-sequencing and mapping of PGP and biocontrol genes on draft genome. Bar D5 based bio-formulation can be provided to companies/researchers interested in saffron cultivation or bio-formulation production for commercial exploitation, since saffron is grown as revenue crop across continents. The present study bridges the gap between genomics and its field application.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field evaluation of PGP Bacillus sp. strain D5 native to Crocus sativus, in traditional and non traditional areas, and mining of PGP genes from its genome

Magotra

Bhagat

Ambardar

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Saffron is geographically distributed in Irano-Touranian regions, East Asia, and Mediterranean climates and largely cultivated in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, India, France, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and Morocco [ 1 ]. Current estimates for total world annual production of saffron are 418 t per year [ 2 ]. Iran, the world’s largest producer of saffron with around 90,000 ha harvest area and 336 t annual yield, is said to produce more than 90% of the total saffron produced worldwide [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conventionally, saffron has a long history of being used as a spice and food additive [ 10 ]. Besides its use in culinary [ 11 ] and cosmetic preparation [ 12 ], saffron has been used as a folk remedy for coughs, colds, insomnia, cramps, asthma and bronchospasms, liver disease, pain, and epilepsy [ 2 ]. Saffron tea has been reputed to be a potential complementary treatment for psoriasis in medical nutrition therapy [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Nutraceutical Benefits of In Vivo Grown Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) As Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Anticoagulant, and Antidepressant in Mice

Khan

Muhamad

Ismail

et al. 2020

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Crocus sativus, a medicinally important herbaceous plant, has been traditionally used to cure coughs, colds, insomnia, cramps, asthma, and pain. Moreover, the therapeutic applications of saffron include its immunomodulatory and anticancer properties. The current experimental analysis was performed to explore the potential nutraceutical efficacy of corm, leaf, petal, and stigma of saffron ethanolic extracts as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, and antidepressant using hot plate, carrageenan-induced paw edema, capillary tube and forced swim test, respectively in mice. The results indicated that among all the extracts, stigma ethanolic extract (SEE) represented maximum latency activity (72.85%) and edema inhibition (77.33%) followed by petal ethanolic extract (PEE) with latency activity and edema inhibition of 64.06 and 70.50%, respectively. Corm ethanolic extract (CEE) and leaf ethanolic extract (LEE) displayed mild analgesic activity of 22.40% and 29.07%, respectively. Additionally, LEE (53.29%) and CEE (47.47%) exhibited mild to moderate response against inflammation. The coagulation time of SEE (101.66 s) was almost equivalent to the standard drug, aspirin (101.66 s), suggesting a strong anticoagulant effect followed by PEE (86.5 s). LEE (66.83 s) represented moderate inhibitory effect on coagulation activity while CEE (42.83 s) showed neutral effect. Additionally, PEE and SEE also expressed itself as potential antidepressants with immobility time ≤76.66 s, while CEE (96.50 s) and LEE (106.83 s) indicated moderate to mild antidepressant efficacy. Based on the in vivo activities, saffron extract, particularly SEE and PEE, can be used as a potential nutraceutical and therapeutic agent due to its significant pharmacological activities.

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“…It is a triploid plant that is propagated through corms ( Bayat et al, 2016 ). More than 418 tons/annum of saffron are produced worldwide from an area of 108,000 ha in Iran, 7,557 ha in Afghanistan, 3,674 ha in India, 1,000 ha in Greece, 850 ha in Morocco, 150 ha in Spain, 70 ha in Italy and 37 ha in France ( Cardone et al, 2020a ). Saffron flowers in the range of 75–100 provide 225–300 stigma threads, which produce only 0.5 g of dry stigma ( Gohari et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agro-Climatic Suitability Evaluation for Saffron Production in Areas of Western Himalaya

et al. 2021

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Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is an expensive spice crop cultivated successfully in Iran, Afghanistan, India, Greece, Morocco, Spain, and Italy. The present study was conducted during the periods 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 to evaluate the morphological, yield and quality parameters of saffron in six different regions of non-traditional areas of the western Himalayas. The two experimental factors were “year” and “location.” The experiment was conducted using a factorial randomized block design with three replications. Yield attributes, viz., number of flowers, fresh flower yield, fresh stigma yield and dry stigma yield were significantly higher in location L3 compared to other geographical locations. Dry stigma yield in location L3 was higher by 50.0, 41.2, 33.3, 14.3, and 9.1% compared to locations L6, L5, L1, L4, and L2, respectively. These were characterized by the appropriate climatic conditions, viz., high altitude, sandy-loam texture of the soil, optimum temperature, lesser relative humidity and total rainfall, demonstrating that it is possible to cultivate this spice even in non-traditional areas of the western Himalaya. Positive correlations were established for stigma yield with increased altitude and lesser rainfall. Secondary metabolites viz., crocin and picrocrocin increased significantly with the increase in altitude; however, a reverse trend was recorded for safranal content. Total phenolics and flavonoids were significantly higher in the geographical location of Kinnaur, H.P. (L1) and Bharmour, H.P. (L4). In conclusion, the assessment of different geographical locations and soil types is particularly necessary to encourage saffron production and its qualitative traits. Based on current findings, saffron can be grown successfully in some non-traditional locations of the western Himalayan regions.

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Saffron (Crocus sativus L.), the king of spices: An overview

Cited by 171 publications

References 96 publications

Field evaluation of PGP Bacillus sp. strain D5 native to Crocus sativus, in traditional and non traditional areas, and mining of PGP genes from its genome

Field evaluation of PGP Bacillus sp. strain D5 native to Crocus sativus, in traditional and non traditional areas, and mining of PGP genes from its genome

Potential Nutraceutical Benefits of In Vivo Grown Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) As Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Anticoagulant, and Antidepressant in Mice

Agro-Climatic Suitability Evaluation for Saffron Production in Areas of Western Himalaya

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