Saffron Extract
CAS#: 116-26-7 2
Main Contents: Safranal
Plant Resource: Crocus sativus L.
Product Specification: 4:1, 10:1, 20:1, 0.08% HPLC
Appearance: Yellowish brown powder
Plant Part Used: Flower
Extract Solution: Grain alcohol
Molecular formula and weight: C10H14O, 150.21
What is Saffron?
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm (8–12 in) and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel.Together with the styles, or stalks that connect the stigmas to their host plant, the dried stigmas are used mainly in various cuisines as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron, long among the world's most costly spices by weight, is native to Southwest Asia and was first cultivated in Greece. As a genetically monomorphic clone, it was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was later brought to parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.
The saffron crocus, unknown in the wild, likely descends from Crocus cartwrightianus, which originated in Crete or Central Asia; C. thomasii and C. pallasii are other possible precursors. The saffron crocus is a triploid that is "self-incompatible" and male sterile; it undergoes aberrant meiosis and is hence incapable of independent sexual reproduction-all propagation is by vegetative multiplication via manual "divide-and-set" of a starter clone or by interspecific hybridisation. If C. sativus is a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, then it may have emerged via plant breeding, which would have selected for elongated stigmas, in late Bronze-Age Crete.
Main Functions:
- its main function are to invigorate, to remove stagnation ,to clear the meridians and release toxins
- it can be used to treat high fever, to help to damage blood clots and to inhibit cancer, the active ingredients , such as crocitin, safranal, crocin
- protocrocin are believed to have anti-cancer effects.
