The most expensive Spice in theworld

The factors which arevery important in saffron are crocin (color), picrocrocin (flavor)and safranal (aroma). Higher amount of these compounds in saffronprovide higher quality of saffron. ISO (the internationalorganization for standardization) has set a classification ofsaffron based on minimum requirements of each quality. According toISO picrocrocin, safranal and crocin are expressed as directreading of the absorbance of 1% aqueous solution of dried saffronat 257, 330 and 440 nm respectively. There was some doubt about theaccuracy of the safranal result using ISO method. Therefore it wasdecided to evaluate the amounts of safranal and crocin in saffronaccording to ISO method and compare the results with the amounts ofthese compounds when using high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC).

Types

1. SargolSaffron: this kind of saffron is pure and contains thestigma without the style. 105 kg of saffron flowers produces 1kg ofsargol saffron.
2. PushalNegin: pushal Sargol is a hybrid that produces saffronwhich is longer and thicker than common saffron.
3. PushalSaffron: this kind of saffron contains the stigmas with a3-5mm style. 101kg of saffron flowers produces 1kg of pushalsaffron.
4. BunchesSaffron: this kind of saffron contains the stigma with thewhole style.