Human cultivation

Human cultivation and use of saffron reaches back more than 3,500 years[1][2] and spans many cultures, continents, and civilizations. Saffron, a spice derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), has remained among the world's most costly substances throughout history. With its bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight metallic notes, saffron has been used as a seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine. Saffron is native to Southwest Asia[3][4]
The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus is Crocus cartwrightianus. Human cultivators bred C. cartwrightianus specimens by selecting plants with abnormally long stigmas. In late Bronze Age Crete, a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, C. sativus, emerged.[5] Saffron was first documented in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation of saffron's use over a span of 4,000 years in the treatment of some ninety illnesses has been uncovered.[6] Saffron slowly spread throughout much of Eurasia, later reaching parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.
The English word saffron stems from the Latin word safranum via the 12th-century Old French term safran. Meanwhile, Safranum derives via Persian زعفران (za'ferân). Some argue that it ultimately came from the Arabic word زَعْفَرَان (za'farān), which is itself derived from the adjective أَصْفَر (aṣfar, "yellow").[7][8] However, some give an alternative derivation arguing that زَعْفَرَان (za'farān) is the arabicized form of the Persian word زرپران (zarparān) - "having yellow leaves".[9] Latin safranum is also the source of the Italian zafferano and Spanish azafrán.[10]




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