Botanical Name - Crocus sativus Category - Spices Form - Dry Part Used - Flower Bud General Information - Crocus sativus L. (Iridaceae), commonly known as saffron, is a perennial stemless herb that is widely cultivated in Iran and other countries such as India and Greece. Commercial saffron comprises the dried red stigma with a small portion of the yellowish style attached. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by bees and butterflies. The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils, requires well-drained soil, and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The flower has three stigmas, which are the distal ends of the plant's carpels. Together with the style, the stalk connecting the stigmas to the rest of the plant are often dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and coloring agent. Saffron blooms only once a year and should be collected within a very short duration. It is picked during 3-4 weeks in October-November. Phytochemicals - Saffron contains more than 150 volatile and aroma-yielding compounds. It also has many non-volatile active components, many of which are carotenoids including zeaxanthin, lycopene, and various �±- and �²-carotenes. The volatiles with a very strong odor are consistent of more than 34 components that are mainly terpenes, terpene alcohols, and their esters. Non-volatiles include crocins that are responsible for the red or reddish brown color of stigmas together with carotenes, crocetin, picrocrocin (a glycosidic precursor of safranal), the bitter substance and safranal the major organoleptic principle of stigmas. However saffron's golden yellow-orange color is primarily due to -crocin. This crocin is trans-crocetin di-(I-D-gentiobiosyl) ester.