Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a light purple flower with reddish colored stigma. It is one of the most expensive spices with a range of quality in its color and aroma. A few key countries involved in saffron commercialization are Spain, Iran, Greece, Morocco, India and China. The main chemical constituents found in saffron are safranal, picrocrocin, crocetin and its glycoside, crocins. These c...

In previous works on authentic samples of saffron of known history (harvest and processing year, storage conditions, and length of time) some biomarkers were proposed using both FT-IR and NMR metabolomics regarding the shelf life of the product. This work addresses the difficulties to trace back the "age" of commercial saffron samples of unknown history, sets a limit value above which these pro...

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) has been considered as a medicinal plant since ancient times and also widely used as food additive for its color, taste and odor. The pharmacological properties of saffron and its main constituents, crocin and safranal have been evaluated using different in vivo and in vitro models. Additionally, other lines of studies have found toxicological effects of saffron. How...

The ornamental and medicinal saffron with high economic value encompasses a great share of non-oil exports in Iran. As a result, identification of suitable areas for saffron cultivation in Ardabil province located in northwestern part of Iran necessitate effective planning for expanding cultivation and production of this product. Given the effect of various environmental factors on growth and y...

Saffron, as one of the most expensive agricultural product around the world, has an important place among Iran’s non-oil exports. Therefore, it is important to solve the problems in Iran's saffron industry as the world’s largest saffron producer. Thus, this study attempts to identify the challenges that directly and indirectly affect the saffron industry and cause stagnation. The challenges...

Saffron consists of bioactive compounds with health-promoting properties and is mainly used in medicine, flavoring coloring. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect extraction methods on antioxidant activity saffron (Crocus sativus L.) extracts (SE) evaluate performance SE vegetable oils. stigmas were extracted water, ethanol, methanol, their combinations using maceration (ME), ultras...

saffron is the most important iranian non oil export. improper conditions of saffron flower storage increases microbial contamination and decreases saffron quality. this study was done for prolonging the shelf life of saffron flower in modified atmosphere packaging and subsequent to producing a new method for exporting the fresh saffron flower as cut flower. saffron flowers were packed in a pol...

this study was performed to assess the effects of nitrogen fertilizer and vermicompost on qualitative and quantitative yield of chamomile ( matricaria chamomilla l.). it was conducted at the research fields of ran company located in firouzkouh, iran, in 2013. treatments were consisted of 1) control, 2) 100% nitrogen from urea, 3) 100% nitrogen from ammonium nitrate, 4) 75% nitrogen from urea an...

objective: this study was designed to investigate the effect of hydroalcoholic extract and essential oil of heracleum persicum (apiaceae) on lipid profile of male hyperlipidemic rabbits. materials and methods: thirty rabbits were randomly divided into six groups of five each. one group received normal diet and the other groups fed with a high cholesterol (2% w/w) diet for 7 weeks. vehicle, hydr...