.280 SAFFRON. 



Spain, for colouring bread, cakes, rice, sauces, and other culinary article',. 

 Confectioners u*e it for colouring or flavouring creams, conserves, liqueurs, 

 ices, &c. Dyers employ it to procure various shades of yellow, and painters 

 add it to different varnishes. 



Qualities. — The stigmata are the only part of this plant used medi- 

 cinally. Saffron has a strong, penetrating, diffusive, tenacious odour, agree- 

 able in the first instance, but soon fatiguing ; a warm, pungent, aromatic 

 and bitterish taste ; and a rich, deep orange-red colour. It yields its colour 

 and active ingredients in great measure to water, wine, vinegar, rectified 

 spirit, and in a less degree to ether ; but much of its flavour remains in the ex- 

 tracts. Its active principle appears to reside in an essential oil, which is ob- 

 tained by distillation with water : this oil is heavy, of a golden yellow colour, 

 fragrant and pungent, and is said to be procured in the proportion of four 

 scruples to sixteen ounces of saffron. The watery infusion is of a deep golden 

 colour, and when much concentrated is rendered deep purple by strong sul- 

 phuric acid, has the smell of vinegar, and yields a copious black precipitate 

 when diluted with water : chlorine produces a copious yellow precipitate, 

 the liquid retaining only a very pale lemon colour. Hence saffron contains 

 chiefly extractive, which Bouillon la Grange and Vogel have proposed to 

 call polychroite, on account of the different colours it is capable of assuming. 

 A small portion of this substance yields a fine colour to a great quantity of 

 water, but the colour is destroyed by chlorine and the solar rays ; sulphuric 

 acid changes it blue, aud nitric acid green. It is obtained by evaporating a 

 watery infusion of saffron to the consistence of honey, which is digested in 

 alcohol, and the solution filtered and evaporated to dryness. According to 

 the analysis of Vogel, 100 parts of saffron afford 65 of polychroite, seven of 

 volatile oil, ten of woody fibre, six of gum, besides water, albumen, wax, 

 salts of lime, &c. 



Adulterations. — English saffron is considered the best, and that im- 

 ported from France and Sicily is preferred to the Spanish, which is usually 

 spoiled with oil, in which it is dipped for the purpose of preserving 

 it. The produce of saffron is very small ; fourteen or fifteen flowers afford- 

 ing little mor'i than a grain of the dry substance, so that upwards of 6000 

 flowers are required to furnish an ounce (Troy). Consequently there are 

 many inducements for adulterating this drug ; and as far back as the time 

 of Pliny this was attempted, for he tells us that the way to prove its genuine- 

 ness is to lay the hand on it, when, if good, it will crack or snap, and if the 

 fingers be then put into the mouth it will cause a stinging sensation in the 

 face and eyes. The modern sophistications are, the petals of safflower (Car- 

 thamus tinctorius), and common marigold {Calendula officinalis), and the 

 fibres of smoked beef. The fraud may be detected by infusing a portion of 

 the suspected article in hot water, when, if the petals are present, they will 

 be detected ; and if, as is not unfrequently the case, saffron from which a 

 portion of colouring matter has been already extracted be blended with the 

 genuine drug, the infusion will be paler and less odorous than it should be. 

 An unpleasant odour arising when the saffron is thrown upon red hot coals 

 will indicate the presence of the fibres of beef. 



