SAFFRON, a product manufactured from the dried stigmas and part of the style of the saffron crocus, a cultivated form of Crocus sativus; some of the wild forms are also employed for the manufacture. The purple flower, which blooms late in autumn, is very similar to that of the common spring crocus, and the stig mas, which protrude from the perianth, are of a characteristic orange-red colour; the fruit is rarely formed. The Egyptians, though acquainted with the bastard safflower, do not seem to have possessed saffron; but it is named in Canticles iv. 14 among other sweet-smelling herbs. It is also repeatedly mentioned by Homer, Hippocrates and other Greek writers.
Saffron has long been cultivated in Persia and Kashmir, and is supposed to have been introduced into China by the Mongol in vasion. It is mentioned in the Chinese materia medica (Pun tsaou, 1552-78). The chief seat of cultivation in early times, however, was the town of Corycus (modern Korghoz) in Cilicia. According to Hehn,.the town derived its name from the crocus; Reymond, on the other hand, with more probability, holds that the name of the drug arose from that of the town. It was cultivated by the Arabs in Spain about 961, and is mentioned in an English leech book of the loth century, but seems to have disappeared from western Europe till reintroduced by the crusaders. According to Hakluyt, it was brought into England from Tripoli by a pilgrim, who hid a stolen corm in the hollow of his staff. It was especially
cultivated near Histon in Cambridgeshire and in Essex at Saffron Walden, its cultivators being called "crokers." Saffron was used as an ingredient in many of the complicated medicines of early times; that it was very largely used in cookery is evidenced by many writers; the Chinese used to employ it largely, and the Persians and Spaniards still mix it with their rice. As a perfume it was strewn in Greek halls, courts and thea tres, and in the Roman baths. The streets of Rome were sprinkled with saffron when Nero made his entry into the city.
It was, however, mainly used as a dye. It was a royal colour in early Greek times, though afterwards, perhaps from its abundant use in the baths and as a scented salve, it was especially appropriated by the hetairai.
Saffron is chiefly cultivated in Spain, France, Sicily, on the lower spurs of the Apennines and in Persia and Kashmir. It occurs in the form of cake saffron, which consists of the stigmas and part of the style which have been "sweated" and pressed to gether into a cake, and also as hay saffron, which consists of the dried stigmas alone.
For further details, see M. Kronfeld, Geschichte des Safrans (Vienna, 1892).