The History of Saffron
Cleopatra was said to bathe in saffron-infused mare’s milk before seeing a suitor.....
Saffron, a spice derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus. It has through history remained among the world's most costly substances.The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus was likely Crocus cartwrightianus, which originated in Crete and Greece. It is thought that Crocus sativus is a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, and it may have emerged via plant breeding, which would have been selected for elongated stigmas, in late Bronze Age Crete.
The resulting saffron crocus was documented in a 7th-century BC Assyrian, its botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal ( King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 668 BC to c. 627 BC), and it has since been traded and used for over 4000 years and has been used as treatment for about 90 different disorders.
The C. sativus clone was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia. Iran now produces most of the worlds Saffron 90% annually.
However New Zealand produces higher Crocin levels than any other country resulting in the highest quality available.
