Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 194. Cl. 3. Ord. 1. Triandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Irideae. G. 92. Corolla six-parted, equal. Stigma convoluted. Species 1. C. sativus.2 Common Saffron. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 763.

t. 259. Miller's Gard. Dict. Smith, Flora Brit. i. 39. C. autum' nalis. C. officinalis, Mart. Fl. Rust. t. 58. Eng. Bot. t. 343. Officinal. Crocus, Lond. Croci sativi stigmata, Edin.Dub.

The stigmas of the Saffron.

Syn. Saffran(F.), Safran ( G. &Dan.), Saffran (Dutch &Swed.),Zafferano(I), Azafran (S.), Acafrao (Port.), Szafran (Pol.), Khoongoomapoo (Tarn.), Zafran (Arab.), Abeer (Pers.), Safaron (Malay), Khohora ( Cyng.),Cashmeerum ( Sans.).

Named from flesh, and

I save, on account of its preserving meat.

Dioscoridis. Its English name is derived from the Arabic Sapharan. Celsus. See Alston's Lectures, ii. 119.

Common saffron is a perennial bulbous plant, found wild in some parts of this country, which affords reason for supposing it to be indigenous; but it is probable that it was originally brought from Greece or Asia. It is cultivated for medicinal use, in great abundance, in Cambridgeshire and Essex. Formerly, it was chiefly grown at Saffron Walden, but it is now confined to Stapleford. It flowers in September. The bulb is solid and depressed. The flower, which appears before the leaves, is sessile on the bulb, of a violet or lilac colour, and raised on a long slender white tube. The leaves are linear, a little revolute, of a deep rich green colour, with a white nerve in the centre, and enclosed with the tube of the flower in a membranous sheath. The corolla is parted into six nearly elliptical segments; the stamens are shorter than the corolla, and erect; and the style, which is the length of the corolla, hangs out at one side between the segments. The stigma is deeply three-parted, of a rich orange-colour, pendulous, and odorous; with the segments linear-involute at the margin, and crenate at the apex.

The flower never varies.

For the preparation of the saffron, the flowers are gathered early in the morning, just as they are about to blow. They are then spread upon a table, and the stigmas, with a proportion of the style, carefully picked out of the flower, which is thrown away as useless. The stigmas are then dried upon a portable kiln of a peculiar construction, over which a haircloth is stretched, and over it several sheets of white paper are laid; upon which the wet saffron is spread between two and three inches thick. It is now covered with other sheets of paper, and over them is laid a coarse blanket, five or six times doubled, which is pressed down with a board and a large weight after the fire is lighted. The first heat is strong, to make the saffron sweat; and, after an hour, when it is intended to form the saffron into a cake, it is turned, and the same degree of heat continued for another hour. The fire is then reduced to a moderate heat, which is kept up for twenty-four hours, during which time the cake is turned every half hour, so as to dry it thoroughly. It is then fit for the market.

The finest saffron is not formed into a cake, but consists of the stigmas dried; and thence it is termed hay saffron.

In the shops, is found saffron from Sicily, France, and Spain, besides the English. The Spanish is generally spoiled with oil, in which it is dipped with the intention of preserving it; the Sicilian and French saffron is better than the Spanish; but the English, as being fresher, more genuine, and better cured, is always preferred. It is sometimes adulterated with fibres of smoked beef, the petals of the safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), and of officinal marigold (Calendula officinalis); or saffron, from which tincture or infusion has been drawn, is mixed with a little good saffron, and again pressed into a cake. These frauds are detected by infusing the suspected saffron in hot water, when the expanded stigmas will be easily distinguished from the florets of the other flowers; and the deficiency of the presence of colour and odour, or an unpleasant odour arising when the saffron is thrown upon red-hot coals, will indicate the presence of the other fraudulent ingredients. It should be chosen fresh in hay, or in close, tough, compact cakes, moderately moist, and possessing, in an obvious degree, all the under-mentioned sensible qualities : the not staining the fingers but making them oily, its exhaling a musty flavour; a whitish yellow or a blackish colour indicate that it is bad, or too old.

Qualities.-Good saffron has a sweetish, penetrating, diffusive odour; a warm, pungent, bitterish taste; and a rich deep orange-yellow hue in the hay, or an orange-red colour in cake. It yields its colour and active ingredients to water, alcohol, proof spirit, wine, vinegar, and, in a smaller degree, to ether. By distillation with water it affords a small quantity of a heavy golden-yellow coloured volatile oil; and it is to this oil that saffron owes its active properties: 32 parts of saffron yield one of oil. The watery infusion, which has a deep orange-colour, is rendered, when much concentrated, of a very deep purple by strong sulphuric acid, the mixture emitting the smell of vinegar, and yielding a copious black precipitate when diluted with water: chlorine produces a copious yellow precipitate, the liquid retaining only a very pale lemon-colour. Saffron seems to contain chiefly extractive, which, according to Hermbstadt, is nearly pure1, and in the proportion of ten parts in sixteen of the vegetable; but M. Henry has demonstrated that it contains volatile oil; and he contends that its stimulant influence is dependent on this oil: the remainder being chiefly ligneous fibre.

I have found that it contains resin also; for sulphuric ether digested on saffron is coloured, and when evaporated on the surface of water, a pellicle of resin is left, whilst the coloured extractive, which is taken up with the resin, is dissolved in and colours the water.2

1 This extractive, when pure, is named polychroite by Bouillon la Grange and Vogel, on account of the different colours it is capable of assuming when it is acted on by sulphuric acid, which changes it to indigo, which gradually becomes lilac: nitric acid gives it a green hue. Vide Ann. de Chim. lxxx. p. 186.

2 Chymists assert, that extractive is insoluble in ether; but I find that when resin also is present in any vegetable matter, ether is capable of taking up some extractive combined with the resin which it dissolves : and when the ethereal

Medical properties and uses.- Saffron is regarded as a stimulant and antispasmodic; but, from the experiments of Dr. Alexander!, its powers appear to be inconsiderable. It was known to the ancients, who considered it as a remedy of great activity; in moderate doses exhilarating the spirits, easing pain, and producing sleep; but occasioning headachs, coma, delirium, convulsive laughter, and even fatal effects, when given in large doses. In modern practice, however, it is scarcely ever given except as a cordial adjunct to more active remedies. The dose in substance is from grs. x. to 3 ss.; but it has been given in much larger doses without any sensible effect being produced.

Officinal preparations.-Syrupus Croci, L. Confectio aromatica, L. D. Pil. Aloes cum Myrrha, L. Pilula Styracis comp'. L. Pilulce Styrace, D. Tinctura Croci sativi, E. Tinct. Aloes comp, L. E. D. Tinct. Cinchonce comp. L. D. Tinct. Aloes, D. Tinct, Rhei comp. L. Decoctum Aloes comp. L. D.