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Hina Zafrani Attar
Hina Zafrani (Saffron) -
Crocus sativus pronounced [SAF-ruhn] is the world's most expensive spice.
Saffron are the stigmas from the crocus sativus flower (see image below).
There are only 3 stigmas (referred to as saffron threads) per flower.
Saffron is hand harvested so you can understand why it is so prized and so
expensive. It takes about 13,125 threads to weigh one ounce.
Saffron comes from Western Asia and most likely Persia. The crocus was
cultivated in ancient Europe. The Mongols took saffron from Persia to
India. In ancient time saffron was used medicinally and as well as for
food and as a dye.
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of the saffron crocus
(Crocus sativus), a species of crocus in the family Iridaceae. A C.
sativus flower bears three stigmas, each the distal end of a carpel.
Together with their styles—stalks connecting stigmas to their host
plant—stigmas are dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and colouring
agent. Saffron, for decades the world's most expensive spice by weight, is
native to Southwest Asia.
Saffron is marked by
a bitter taste and an iodoform- or hay-like fragrance; these result from
the chemicals picrocrocin and safranal. A carotenoid dye, crocin, allows
saffron to impart a rich golden-yellow hue to dishes and textiles. Saffron
has further medicinal applications.
The word saffron
stems from the Latin word safranum via the 12th-century Old French term
safran. Safranum is related to the Italian zafferano and Spanish azafrán.
Safranum derives from the Arabic word aṣfar (أَصْفَر), which means
"yellow," via the Persian paronymous zafarān
The
history of saffron cultivation reaches back more than 3,000 years. The
wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus was Crocus cartwrightianus.
Human cultivators bred wild specimens by selecting for unusually long
stigmas. Thus, a sterile mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, C. sativus,
emerged in late Bronze Age Crete. Experts believe saffron was first
documented in a 7th century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under
Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation of saffron's use over the span of
4,000 years in the treatment of
some 90 illnesses has been uncovered.
During his Asian campaigns, Alexander the Great used Persian saffron in
his infusions, rice, and baths as a curative for battle wounds.
Alexander's troops mimicked the practice and brought saffron-bathing back
to Greece.
Buddhist monks in India adopted saffron-coloured robes after the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama's death. However, the robes were not dyed with costly
saffron but turmeric, a less expensive dye, or jackfruit.
In Europe,
saffron cultivation declined steeply following the Roman Empire's fall.
Saffron was reintroduced when the Islamic civilization "Al-Andalus" spread
to Spain, France, and Italy. During the 14th century Black Death, demand
for saffron-based medicine skyrocketed, and much saffron had to be
imported via Venetian and Genoan ships from southern and Mediterranean
lands such as Rhodes. The theft of one such shipment by noblemen sparked
the fourteen-week long "Saffron War". The conflict and resulting fear of
rampant saffron piracy spurred significant saffron cultivation in Basel,
which grew prosperous. Cultivation and trade then spread to Nuremberg,
where epidemic levels of saffron adulteration brought on the Safranschou
code, under which saffron adulterators were fined, imprisoned, and
executed. Soon after, saffron cultivation spread throughout England,
especially Norfolk and Suffolk. The Essex town of Saffron Walden, named
for its new specialty crop, emerged as England's prime saffron growing and
trading center. However, an influx of more exotic spices such as
chocolate, coffee, tea, and vanilla from newly contacted Eastern and
overseas countries caused European cultivation and usage of saffron to
decline. Only in southern France, Italy, and Spain, did significant
cultivation endure.
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Hina Zafrani Attar |
Spicy, mysterious, evokes warm thoughts towards oneself and others. This is
an oil of saffron blended with the same rare herbal base oil as the above.
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SOON |
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