Saffron: red gold, from the crocus flower to science

The fact file

Saffron in brief.

A small mauve flower that comes out of the ground in autumn, without warning, and fades in two days. At the heart of every flower, three bright red threads: they, and they alone, become the spice.

Beware of false friends: “Indian saffron”, “bourbon saffron” or “saffron turmeric” all refer to turmeric, a yellow root from an entirely different family. And “bastard saffron” is safflower, a flower used to adulterate real saffron.

Three thousand years of history

A spice of frescoes, of kings and of merchants.

The word saffron comes from the Arabic za'farān, which evokes yellow. Long before reaching our kitchens, it was used to dye, to perfume and to treat.

Why so expensive?

The price of saffron, explained.

Saffron is bought by the gram. Its price is simply explained: everything is done by hand, and it takes a mad quantity of flowers.

A plant that cannot be sown. The saffron crocus is sterile. It produces no seeds and multiplies only through its bulbs, called corms, which have to be planted, lifted and replanted every few years.

A lightning harvest. Flowering lasts a few weeks, in October and November. Each flower is picked on the morning it opens.

The stripping. The three stigmas are then separated from the flower one by one, by hand, and dried. It takes around 150,000 flowers to obtain a kilo of dried saffron, and hundreds of hours of work.

The result: a good-quality saffron sells for several thousand euros a kilo, more still for European saffrons. Happily, the spice is so powerful that a pinch is enough for a dish for four.

Clinical studies almost always use a standardised extract, not culinary saffron. That is what makes it possible to know exactly how much active each volunteer received.

What it contains

Colour, bitterness, aroma: three molecules.

Each of saffron's three characters corresponds to a family of molecules. Knowing them means understanding both its quality in the kitchen and why researchers are interested.

The crocins are rare carotenoid pigments, soluble in water. They are what tint rice and sauces a golden yellow. That, incidentally, is why saffron is infused in a liquid before being added.

Picrocrocin carries saffron's characteristic bitterness. During drying and storage it turns partly into safranal.

Safranal is the volatile molecule that gives saffron its scent. It is also one of the compounds most closely followed in research, along with the crocins, and one of the markers used to standardise extracts.

The international standard ISO 3632 classes saffron into categories according to its colouring power, its bitterness and its aroma, measured in the laboratory. Category I corresponds to the best quality.

The benefits of saffron

What tradition credits it with, and what we actually know.

“Saffron benefits” is by far the most frequent search about this spice. The honest answer comes in two parts: a very long tradition, and human research far more advanced than for most spices.

On the tradition side, saffron has been used for centuries in Persian and Ayurvedic medicine, notably for digestion, wellbeing and morale. It was readily called “the spice of happiness”.

On the research side, it is mood that has interested researchers most. Since the early 2000s, several randomised placebo-controlled trials have tested saffron extracts, most often around 30 mg a day, for four to eight weeks. Other work has looked at sleep, stress, premenstrual syndrome or eyesight, with more preliminary results. To go further, discover the symptoms of high cortisol and the natural answers.

And skin, hair, weight loss? On these subjects, the human data remain very thin.

What to take away: saffron is a remarkable spice, and one of the best-studied plant extracts for morale. It is not a medicine, and it does not replace medical care. But in a focus routine, alongside ingredients such as Lion's Mane, the mushroom of focus, it has every right to its place.

Saffron as a supplement

How to take it, and how much.

A saffron food supplement has nothing to do with a pinch in a risotto. It provides a known, regular dose of actives, day after day, which no recipe can guarantee.

Saffron is often paired with rhodiola or, as in Focus, with focus plants. A good supplement states the quantity of saffron per serving and, ideally, its standardisation.

In cooking and in infusions

Saffron in the cup and on the plate.

The golden rule fits in one sentence: always infuse saffron before adding it. A few threads in two tablespoons of warm water, milk or stock, for at least 20 minutes, and you release its colour and its scent.

Saffron syrup, honey and tea each have their followers. They are pleasures of taste above all: at those quantities you enjoy the aroma, but not the doses studied in research.

Choose whole threads over powder, which is easier to adulterate, and keep them in an airtight tin, away from the light.

Spotting a real saffron

The most adulterated spice in the world.

When a spice is worth more than silver by weight, the cheats are never far away. Cut powder, dyed threads, substitute flowers: here is how to avoid being taken in.

The simplest test: drop a thread into a glass of warm water. A real saffron slowly releases a golden yellow halo, while the thread itself stays red. An immediate red or orange colour, or a thread that loses its colour entirely, should set off an alarm.

A real saffron stigma is two to three centimetres long, flares into a small trumpet at its tip and smells of honey and hay. An abnormally low price is almost always a warning signal.

The right combinations

Saffron plays as a team.

Saffron is rarely taken on its own. Here are the ingredients that most often go with it, in our range and elsewhere, and why.

In Focus, saffron also sits alongside Bacopa monnieri, an Ayurvedic plant taken over several weeks, and Ginkgo biloba, the most studied leaf extract in the world.

Who it is for

A focus routine is for you if…

• You string together days of intellectual work, screens and meetings.
• You are going through a busy stretch and want to keep a clear head and a steady mood.
• You are preparing for exams, a competitive entrance test or a return to study.
• You are looking for a caffeine-free course, to take over time.

The recipes for all our formulas are developed and produced in Toulouse, France, by a French contract manufacturer, and they are vegan, GMO-free and gluten-free, with a 60-day money-back guarantee and the choice between a one-off purchase and a monthly subscription (−30 %). See the Entrepreneur Pack or BrainPower Pack.

Contraindications

Benefits and contraindications: what you need to know.

At culinary doses and at supplement doses, around 30 mg a day, saffron is well tolerated by the vast majority of adults. The side effects reported in the trials remain rare and mild: nausea, headaches, dry mouth or a change in appetite.

The risk comes from very large quantities. From several grams a day, that is more than a hundred times the dose used in the studies, saffron can become toxic. That is one more reason never to exceed the stated dose and to be wary of very concentrated “home recipes”.

A supplement does not replace medical advice. If your mood is persistently low, talk to your doctor: that is the first step, and the most important one.

Sources

1. Akhondzadeh S. et al. (2005). Crocus sativus L. in the treatment of mild to moderate depression: a double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial. Phytotherapy Research, 19(2).
2. Hausenblas H. A. et al. (2013). Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Journal of Integrative Medicine, 11(6).
3. Kell G. et al. (2017). affron®, a novel saffron extract (Crocus sativus L.), improves mood in healthy adults over 4 weeks in a double-blind, parallel, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 33.
4. Lopresti A. L. et al. (2020). Effects of saffron on sleep quality in healthy adults with self-reported poor sleep: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 16(6).

Put it into practice

Saffron, the Mush n Go version.

You now know all about saffron and what to look for on a label. Here is where to find it with us, with vegan formulas whose recipes are developed and produced in Toulouse, France, by a French contract manufacturer, backed by a 60-day money-back guarantee.

In capsules

Focus

Our focus formula: Lion's Mane, Saffron, Bacopa monnieri, Ginkgo biloba and Maritime pine. The 30-day course for stretches of intense work.

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The head and body duo

Entrepreneur Pack

Focus for concentration, Energy for vitality, caffeine-free. Two 30-day courses for the weeks that count.

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The other ingredients

Keep exploring.

Saffron is only one of the ingredients in our formulas. Discover the others, or browse the page for all our active ingredients.