Medicinal plants: saffron

Latin name: Crocus sativus, of the iris family (Iridaceae)

A slow-growing perennial bulb plant, 30 to 50 cm tall, with small corms and narrow green leaves. It flowers in autumn (September to December), producing a few violet flowers. Each flower has a long, thread-like pale yellow style ending in a three-lobed, reddish-purple stigma. The stigmas are the main crop of saffron, giving the precious dye crocin. To get 1 kg of dry stigmas, you need the flowers of about 10,000 plants.

Its root is a scaly bulb, its leaves green and its flowers blue-violet; the flowers close at night. Only the stigmas are used medicinally.

What it contains

Saffron stigmas contain crocin, the yellow dye: 1 g dissolved in a litre of water turns it clearly yellow. They also contain picrocrocin, which splits into a sugar and a volatile oil that gives saffron its characteristic taste and smell, as well as a fixed oil (8–13%), a volatile oil (1.3%), starch and lycopene.

Traditional uses

Said to brighten the eyes, stimulate the stomach, strengthen the heart and ease spasms.
Taken with honey, it was believed to break up stones.
Dissolved in vinegar and rubbed on the temples, it was used to ease a severe headache.
The stigmas were considered refreshing and an aphrodisiac for men.
Used as a tonic, a gentle nerve stimulant, against colds and against pain from inflamed mucous membranes.
Used for asthma, as a pain reliever and stomach tonic, to relieve colic, and to bring on periods (so it should be avoided in pregnancy).

Saffron is widely used as a colouring in the food industry, where it also adds a pleasant taste and smell, and it is an ingredient in many pharmaceutical preparations.

By Dr Elias Jabbour