SAFFRON QUALITY: EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, PROCESSING AND STORAGE STELLA A. ORDOUDI AND MARIA Z. TSIMIDOU Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Chemistry, Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. History Saffron, the most expensive spice worldwide, is comprised of the dried stigmas of the plant Crocus sativus Linnaeus of the Iridaceae family, a sterile triploid not found in the wild. According to the definition given by FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation) it forms ‘a loosely matted mass of dark, reddish-brown flattened threads, amongst which a few narrower yellow ones can be distinguished. The upper, enlarged part of the flattened threads is the stigma of the flower, the lower narrower portion is the style’ (FAO, 1986). Saffron is mainly used as a spice that imparts colour to food but its medicinal and dyeing properties are also well known and appreciated. C. cartwrightianus, a possible progenitor of C. sativus, as well as more than 80 other species belonging to genus Crocus originate from the eastern Mediterranean basin from where the cultivation of the plant was spread to other parts of the ‘Old World’. Many of the Crocus species occur in the Aegean islands and Crete (Greece) that may be considered as ‘the birthplace’ of the cultivated plant, highly appreci- ated in the early civilizations of those areas for its exceptional properties. Famous fresco fragments exhibited today in the archaeological museums in Heraklion (Crete), Santorini and that in Athens offer evidence for the ritual significance and the use of Crocus plant in the every day life of the prehistorical natives. In addition, written information on pottery tablets give unequivocal evidence for the participa- tion of the plant material in the economy of the Cretan kings of Knossos (1500–1450 B.C). The small amounts of the final product, the dried stigmas, reported on those records, equivalent to a few grams up to half a kilo, indicate that it commanded continually through the centuries an exceptional high commercial price. The ancient Greek name ‘krokos’ survived in the current language of this small country to characterise both the plant and the spice whereas the word saffron of Arabic (or old French?) roots (that means ‘yellow’) that may dates even back to the Assyrian empire (2300 B.C) and comes from the name of a town called Azupirano (Saffron town) (Basker and Negbi, 1983) is used in many languages (‘safran’ in French and German, ‘saufuran’ in Japanese, ‘azafran’ in Spanish, ‘zafora’ in Greek). The Hebrew word found in Bible is ‘karkom’ and the Chinese names are ‘fan-hong-hua’ (foreign red flower) or ‘zang-hong-hua’ (Tibet red flower). 209 R. Dris and S. M. Jain (eds.), Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops, Vol. 1, “Preharvest Practice”, pp. 209–260. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 210 S. A. Ordoudi and M. Z. Tsimidou Figure 1. Dried stigmas of saffron. Figure 2. On the left, a monkey among Crocus flowers (archaeological museum of Heraklion, Crete). On the right, a woman-collecting Crocus flowers (archaeological museum of Thira, Santorini). Saffron Quality 211 Figure 3. Crocus symbols in scruples: hieroglyphic, linear A and B. 1.2. Commercial interest Today, the cultivated species, C. sativus, is found in many countries such as Azerbaijan, Greece, India, Iran, Italy and Spain. Moreover, China, Israel, Japan and Mexico show their interest in its cultivation whereas in countries such as France, Austria or Germany, with a history in growing, it is found only sparingly owe to the enthusiasm of certain individuals. A vivid interest is observed in many coun- tries to increase the production of the valuable saffron ingredients. Moreover, investigations on alternative sources of saffron are carried out (Kamikura et al., 1985; Pham et al., 2000; Radjabian et al., 2001). Among the latter, cape jasmine (Gardenia jasminoides Ellis) is a serious competitor, since its extracts contain the same colour- ings but not the aromatic compounds. In international legislation saffron is regarded as a ‘natural colour’ (Green, 1995). Private sector mainly conducts saffron trade worldwide so that statistical data available are incomplete. An annual rate of 50 tons at a cost of 50 million dollars was reported at early 90s (Oberdieck, 1991). A recent review on production and export (Negbi, 1999) gives data that mainly concern the 70s and 80s. Prices for saffron small size sachets (0.25–1 g) are even ten times higher the raw saffron price. Swings and fluctuations of the traded quantities are related to changes in the consumer trends, industrial choices and production in various countries with regards to socio-economical or climatic factors. In any case saffron cultivation relies heavily on labour since no step of the whole production line is mechanised so far (Galigani and Pegna, 1999). Its exceptionally high price is, thus, self-evident. According to data available till the beginning of 80s (Sampathu et al., 1984), Spain 212 S. A. Ordoudi and M. Z. Tsimidou almost monopolised the world trade (>90%) though its production accounted for the 52% of overall saffron production. According to the same source India and Greece produced the 21.2%, and 13.2%, respectively, and other countries much less (Italy, 7.5%; France 6.1%). Spain is also a great importer of Iranian and Indian saffron (Green, 1995). A more recent ranking (Saltron et al., 1999; Alonso et al., 2001) shows significant changes in production trend: Iran (80 tons), Kashmir (10 tons), Greece (6 tons), Spain (3 tons), Morocco (1 ton). The major markets are Western Europe, North America, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates. The USA imported 1.5 tons (~$198000) in 1969 (Papanikolaou, 1997), 3 tons in 1992 and 8.3 tons in 1994! The price of the spice was around $2000/kg ten years ago (Sujata et al., 1992). Variation in exports is characteristic in saffron trade in India, e.g. 1485 kg in 1969 and none five years later. An increase in exports in line with the international trend is reported in early 90s (1991–1992, 3724 kg) (Dhar and Mir, 1997). The authors relate saffron production and prosperity of the community in charge, in com- parison to other common plant products. Domestic prices ranged from 700–1000 dollars per kilogram. Stamen trade seems to add value to the cultivation since a significant quantity seems to be exported every year (11904 kg in 1991). Raina et al. (1996) gives rather high values for the Indian production (~30 tons valued at $20 millions). Fluctuations in production are also observed in Spain. Basker and Negbi (1983) report 56 metric tones in 1972 and a decline to 20 metric tones in 1980 due to product failure. The Saffron Growers’ Co-operative of Kozani (Greece) (personal communication) that hosts approximately 1300 members gives valuable statistical data that indicate a continuous increase in the commercial price of the product ($272 in 1985 and $600 in 2000). The 93% of the commercial price of the product returns to the growers, who are very satisfied from their profits. The price of the product in small packets is steadily two folds higher than that of the bulk product. The amount of Greek saffron is approximately 5 tons. An increased production (ca. 7 tons) was observed in the years 1996 and 1997. The worst har- vesting period the last decade was the year 2001 when a sudden climatic change in the middle of the harvesting period destroyed half of the expected production. It is worth mentioning that best clients for Greek saffron are Spain (almost half of the production in large packing of dried stigmas), France (>1 ton) and Italy (~0.5 ton). A steady market of 100–300 kg in Germany and Sweden and an increasing trend in Greece are also observed in the last ten years. The above men- tioned prices are surprisingly much lower than those reported by Tammaro (1999) who gives a figure of $4000/kg of dried stigmas and a much higher price for retail packed Italian saffron. High prices in Milan market ($304–312/kg raw saffron) are found since 1965–1968. The situation in Morocco was recently presented by Ait- Oubahou and El-Otmani (1999), who expressed very interesting views on the economics of this cultivation. Though the ancient Cilicia (Asia Minor) was famous for the high quality saffron, no place in Turkey has a systematic cultivation of saffron crocus. Only Safranbolu, a city near the Black Sea coast, produces a few kilo- grams (10–12) of saffron annually (Sampathu et al., 1984). This place, as indicated by name, used to be an exporter of saffron to central Europe in the past. Saffron Quality 213 1.3. Uses There is not a systematic study on the history of saffron use in the various coun- tries, yet. Most scientists in review articles and research papers refer to the same quotations found in Homer, the Greek classic poets, Plinius and Dioskorides, or abstract evidence from the medieval and more recent records on folk medicine recipes. The exceptional presence of saffron as a condiment in the Roman (see the famous cookbook, De la Coquinaria, Apicius, 1st century B.C), Byzantine and Arabian cuisine coincides with its esteemed culinary position in the medieval courts of central Europe and Britain. Inspectors for keeping saffron free from fraud were in charge in Venice and Germany. Saffron preparations in the Ayurvedic, Siidha and Unani (Greek) systems of traditional medicine of India and in the Chinese therapeutic are credited with several exceptional properties. As a dye, it is reported to color the official clothes of kings, priests and other eminent persons at various places in different historical periods.