SAFFRON 111 



of the styles. The plant flowers in the autumn and consists of a more 

 or less globular corm, a few linear leaves, and a scape with lilac-purple 

 flowers. The plant is cultivated extensively in Spain, and to some 

 extent in France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. It has 

 also been successfully grown in Lebanon County, Pa. The flowers 

 are collected in autumn, the stigmas and upper portions of the styles 

 separated and dried. As the plant only produces one or two flowers, 

 the styles and stigmas only being used, a good quality of drug is 

 expensive. The labor involved is necessarily tedious and the loss 

 on drying is about 80 per cent. The figures vary considerably but it 

 is estimated that 100,000 flowers are gathered in order to obtain but 

 500 gm. of drug. There are two principal commercial varieties, viz. : 

 Valencia, consisting almost entirely of stigmas, and the Alicante being 

 usually contaminated with larger percentage of fragments of styles, 

 stamens and corolla. Saffron should not be exposed to the light, 

 and should be kept in tin containers or amber-colored bottles. 



Description. Stigmas separate or three attached to the top of 

 the style; stigmas about 25 mm. long, cornucopia-shaped with a 

 dentate or fimbriate margin, and of a dark rich red color; styles 

 about 10 mm. long, more or less cylindrical, solid, yellowish; odor 

 strong, peculiar, aromatic; taste bitterish, aromatic. 



On placing the stigmas in sulphuric acid they are immediately 

 colored blue, gradually changing to violet, and finally become a 

 deep wine-red color. 



If 0.010 gm. of finely comminuted saffron is added to 100 c.c. 

 of cold water and allowed to macerate for several hours and filtered, 

 then 10 c.c. of this filtrate when added to 100 c.c. of water should give 

 a distinct yellow colored solution. 



On macerating 0.010 gm. of saffron in 5 c.c. of methyl alcohol a 

 strong orange color is imparted to the liquid. On the addition of 

 0.010 gm. of saffron to 5 c.c. of acetone, alcohol, or absolute alcohol a 

 distinct lemon yellow color is produced. With ether a very light 

 lemon yellow color is produced. With chloroform a very slight 

 yellow tinge is imparted and with xylol, benzol, carbon disulphide, 

 carbon tetrachloride, and petroleum benzin the solvents remain 

 colorless. 



Inner Structure. A microscopic view of the upper end of the 

 stigma shows the presence of numerous papillse which are cylindrical 

 and about 0. 150 mm. long, in among which occur a few pollen grains 

 which are spheroidal, nearly smooth, and about 0.040 to 0.075 mm. 

 in diameter; occasionally some of the pollen grains have germinated 

 and show pollen tubes of various lengths. 



