Why Is Saffron The World’s Most Expensive Spice?
You walk into an Iranian desert landscape, and are greeted by a surprisingly spectacular display of bright purple flowers. Who would have thought that in this barren desert, you’d stumble upon a field of flowers? These flowers are Crocus sativus. Upon a closer look, you become hypnotized by three bright crimson red strands. These are the flowers that give rise to the world’s most expensive spice, saffron! The stigmas are those three tiny crimson red strands, and after you precisely dry them, you have saffron. Now, this makes it seem like a simple task, but this is certainly not the case!
Crocus sativus’s Cryptic Origins
The origin of Crocus sativus is still somewhat unknown, however, there is some evidence to suggest that through high levels of artificial selection, Crocus cartwrightianus eventually mutated into Crocus sativus. Selective breeding increased stigma length in Crocus cartwrightianus, resulting in the creation of Crocus sativus. The unfortunate side effect of this process is that Crocus sativus is entirely sterile. Therefore, it cannot grow without human intervention. This is quite fascinating when we consider some of the first mentions of saffron use date back to about 50,000 years ago. The first evidence of Crocus sativus farms dates back to about 3,500 years ago!
Saffron’s Cultivation Conundrum
So how do you cultivate Crocus sativus? You start with something called a corm, which is a small bulb from which the Crocus sativus flowers. However, this is where things get complicated. Once you plant the corm, the Crocus sativus can begin to flower in as little as 30 days. You need to be very quick on the draw with harvesting. Crocus sativus farmers have to harvest thousands of flowers in a matter of days. This is just part of the complexity, though. Crocus sativus is fully sterile and can only grow from corms.
The Labor of Saffron
After the Crocus sativus has flowered, its green leaves remain, and the underground corm starts to produce daughter corms. During the summer, farmers dig up the daughter corms of Crocus sativus when it becomes dormant. Farmers must store these corms properly until the fall when they can be planted again. This entails a high degree of manual labor. Corms are delicate, requiring manual digging up and replanting. Combine this with the intensive manual labor for harvesting and processing. It’s evident why saffron is pricey. And we haven’t even taken into account the low yields yet!
The stigmas of Crocus sativus are feather light. You need A LOT of them to produce saffron. On average, it takes about 150 Crocus sativus flowers to produce just a single gram of saffron spice. For a mere kilogram of saffron, you need to harvest an absolutely mind-boggling amount of Crocus sativus flowers, about 150,000 flowers! Harvesting all these flowers early in the morning narrows your harvesting window significantly.
In addition to the complexity of harvesting, the processing of saffron is where things get even more tricky. Removing the three tiny and delicate stigmas by hand is necessary. Now imagine doing that 150,000 times to produce just a single kilogram of the spice! After harvesting the stigmas, precise drying is also necessary. Without the crucial drying stage, the aromatic compound in saffron, safranal, will not be present.
Traditional Uses Of Saffron
Culinary Delights of Saffron
Now that you know just how much work goes into cultivating, harvesting, and processing saffron, why go through all of this trouble? Why have we been cultivating and using it for thousands of years? On the culinary side, saffron produces a complex array of aromas, flavors and colors that are hard to achieve with other spices. Proper cultivation and drying result in saffron exuding an intoxicating aroma. It offers a bouquet of honey, tobacco, leather, and hay.
The aromas also transfer to saffron’s taste, offering a deep yet delicate flavor profile. This includes a unique bitterness. Tasting pure saffron can be slightly unpleasant, with bitterness sometimes taking on a metallic quality. However, used in moderation, it adds complexity to food. Another hallmark of saffron’s culinary use is its ability to color food a deep, vibrant yellow. It can bring life and color to practically any dish!
Medicinal Marvels of Saffron
On the medicinal side, saffron has also seen widespread use for thousands of years! This is no surprise, because the bioactives in saffron produce some really unique effects. Saffron remains renowned as a primary traditional mood brightener, retaining its efficacy today. Saffron was also often utilized during menstruation, branching off from its mood brightening effects. It was a way to lift spirits but also to dampen pain. In fact, people often used saffron as a pain management herb!
Traditionally, saffron also seemed to enhance eye health. Now this is where things get interesting, the list of traditional uses simply doesn’t stop! Saffron appeared to function as a “panacea herb” in traditional usage. There were seemingly endless number of uses for it. Saffron was believed to benefit the kidneys, liver, lungs, brain, eyes, joints, cardiovascular system, metabolic system, and reproductive system.
Traditional Preparation of Saffron
Due to the compounds being highly water soluble, people often extract the saffron stigmas into water. People used these water preparations both internally and externally on the skin. People sometimes extracted saffron into sesame or olive oil for a number of days, in addition to water extracts. Then, people used this oil extract both internally and externally on the skin. People consumed saffron most commonly through food, where they consumed the largest quantities. This is common in cultures where highly bioactive herbs are used in relatively large quantities in food.
The Biochemistry of Saffron
Biochemical Transformation of Saffron
One of the most interesting things about saffron is its biochemistry. When the Crocus sativus stigmas are immature, they are bright yellow, and over time this transitions to orange and eventually into crimson red. This color change reflects what is happening biochemically within the Crocus sativus stigmas. When the stigmas are immature and yellow-orange, they contain a high concentration of the carotenoid zeaxanthin, which just so happens to be bright yellow-orange in its pure form.
During the maturation of the stigmas, enzyme systems kick on which oxidatively cleave zeaxanthin at both ends to liberate 3-OH-β-cyclocitral and dialdehyde. As stigma maturation progresses further, the liberated dialdehyde then converts into crocetins which then converts into crocins. At this stage of stigma maturation, the stigmas are becoming bright crimson red, which directly mirrors the appearance of crocetins and crocins. This makes a lot of sense, because in their pure form, crocin and crocetin are bright crimson red and are in fact entirely responsible for the unique color of saffron!
Aromatic Development in Saffron
At the crimson red stage of stigma maturity, one would notice a distinct lack of aroma associated with saffron spice. The reason for this is because the aroma molecule, safranal, has not appeared yet. As mentioned earlier, zeaxanthin converts into 3-OH-β-cyclocitral and dialdehyde. During maturation, the 3-OH-β-cyclocitral converts to picrocrocin, contributing to saffron’s unique bitter flavor. During the crucial drying stage, picrocrocin is converted to safranal, the unique aroma compound in saffron. This concept is quite fascinating and frequently observed, yet it’s not discussed nearly enough.
For example, raw undried maca doesn’t contain the macamides, which only form during the drying stage. Another great example is that raw vanilla pods don’t smell or taste like vanilla, these aromas and flavors only occur during the curing and drying stage. This further highlights just how difficult it can be to produce the saffron spice, because the safranal content is both crucial for culinary applications and medicinal applications!
The Science Behind Saffrons Bountiful Benefits
Now that we’ve covered saffron’s origins, cultivation, processing, traditional uses, and biochemical pathways, let’s delve into its benefits!Let’s start with the mood effects, as this is one of the primary traditional uses.
Neurological Effects of Saffron
Saffron has a fairly wide array of effects on mood, hitting many different neurotransmitter systems. First and foremost, it is a mild serotonin reuptake inhibitor. What this means is that the bioactives in saffron can block a transporter which normally removes serotonin from the synaptic cleft following its release from neurons. When we block this transporter, it means serotonin can reside in the synaptic cleft a little bit longer, thus allowing it to bind to serotonin receptors for a longer period of time. Boosting serotonin levels subtly can be highly beneficial for overall mood state because serotonin is closely linked to mood. However, inhibiting this transporter too much can actually lead to quite a lot of negative effects. This is what makes saffron unique, because the effect on the serotonin transporter is quite mild, and thus the effects are very natural and balanced.
Neurotransmitter Modulation
Focusing on serotonin a little bit more, perhaps brings us to one of the most interesting effects of saffron. Sparse research has indicated that saffron bioactives may act as a serotonin 5-HT2C antagonist. The serotonin 5-HT2C receptor is very unique because it actually controls the release of dopamine and norepinephrine. Blocking the 5-HT2C receptor enhances the release of dopamine and norepinephrine, while activating it suppresses their release.
This means that if saffron is indeed a 5-HT2C antagonist, then it will increase the release of both dopamine and norepinephrine! Another theory is that saffron blocks the dopamine and norepinephrine transporters, thereby also enhancing their levels. Either way, studies have shown that saffron bioactives can significantly enhance dopamine and norepinephrine levels, so regardless of the mechanism by which this is happening, the dopamine and norepinephrine increases play a major role in the mood brightening effects of saffron!
Impact on Monoamines
Saffron may also help enhance the levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin by acting as mild non-competitive monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, targeting both MAO-A and MAO-B. The MAO enzymes degrade dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, thus by inhibiting their activity, the levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin will increase. Summing everything up, from the reuptake inhibition effects, to potential 5-HT2C antagonism and MAO-A & B inhibition, saffron has a very significant impact on monoamines in the brain!
Effects on GABA and Glutamate
Switching gears to the amino acid neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate, saffron also plays a unique role here. GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, often induces calming effects and muscle relaxation, while glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter, is associated with memory as well as nervousness and agitation. Saffron bioactives activate GABAergic signaling, and inhibit glutaminergic NMDA signaling which when combined, produces very unique mood elevating and relaxing effects. When paired with the monoaminergic effects of saffron, this produces incredibly comprehensive effects on mood! However, saffron has another trick up its sleeve, neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity and Beyond
When stress occurs, the levels of a unique peptide called pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) decrease. This decrease negatively impacts neuroplasticity because PACAP phosphorylates extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK) and response element binding protein (CREB). These proteins are crucial for the expression of synaptic plasticity proteins like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Saffron bioactives can reverse this negative effect of stress on neuroplasticity, by enhancing the expression of PACAP and thereby helping to increase neuroplasticity! When combined with its monoaminergic, NMDA antagonist and GABA agonist effects, this makes saffron an absolute powerhouse for mood!
Cognitive and Neuroprotective Effects
All of the neurological effects that we just covered, will also produce a fairly prominent nootropic effect, helping to enhance overall cognitive function. Saffron bioactives also strongly modulate oxidation and inflammation, even in the brain, and when combined with the neuroplasticity effects, you end up with a significant neuroprotective effect! This protective effect also extends further out into our visual system, with the saffron bioactives being strongly protective of our eyes! It partially achieves this through its oxidation and inflammation regulating effects, however, saffron has an additional trick up its sleeve. Saffron bioactives can help protect the eyes from the negative effects of too much ATP, by blocking one of the receptors ATP activates, P2X7. This pathway suggests saffron’s high protection of the visual system, explaining its traditional acclaim in this regard.
Pain Management and Cardiovascular Effects
Saffron’s pain management effects, a primary traditional use, partly stem from its impact on NMDA and GABA signaling. The NMDA receptors are crucial in controlling neurological nociceptive signaling. When NMDA receptors are blocked, nociceptive signaling is dampened and this produces a unique neurological pain management effect. This also applies to GABAergic signaling, where increased GABAergic signaling can lead to muscle relaxation and a dampening of nociceptive signaling. Nociceptive processing is also highly influenced by serotonergic and dopaminergic signaling, and thus, saffron is incredibly comprehensive when it comes to tackling pain via neurological mechanisms!
Non-CNS Pain Management Effects
Stepping outside of the CNS, saffron bioactives also produce prominent pain management effects by modulating inflammation and oxidation. For a deeper explanation on how these processes influence pain, check out our pain blog or our pain podcast. Anecdotally, we have found that the pain management effects of saffron are surprisingly potent! Combining the mood elevating effects with the pain management effects, then also provides a good scientific explanation as to why saffron was often used to offset the negative mood and pain that menstruation can induce.
Moving to the cardiovascular effects, saffron bioactives produce two distinct effects. The first of which is controlling oxidation throughout the cardiovascular system which can be highly beneficial. Secondly, saffron bioactives appear to increase the bioavailability of an important vasodilator called nitric oxide. Through this effect, saffron can increase blood flow, which can have positive impacts on overall cardiovascular function. Running with the nitric oxide effects a little further, also identifies an exercise performance benefit. More blood flow is often a highly desired effect when working out, as it will increase the “pump” experienced when blood rushes into muscle that are being worked out. This will especially be the case when saffron is stacked with other nitric oxide boosters like citrulline, arginine, and agmatine!
Also read our blog on Lion’s Mane Mushroom
