668 IRIDACE^. 



Albacete (Northern Murcia), in La Mancha, near Huelva, and also near 

 Palma in the island of Mallorca. It is brought into commerce as 

 Alicante and Valencia Safron. The quantity of saffron exported from 

 Spain in 1864 was valued at £190,062 ; in 1865, £135,316 ; in 1866, 

 £47,083. The drug was chiefly exported to France.^ 



French saflron, which enjoys a better reputation for purity than the 

 Spanish, is cultivated in the arrondissement of Pithiviers-en-Gatinais, 

 in the department of the Loiret, which district annually furnishes a 

 quantity valued at 1,500,000 (£60,000) to 1,800,000 francs.^ The 

 exports of France in 1875 were 97,021 kilogrammes, 84,337 of which 

 being imported from Spain. 



In Austria, Maissau, north-east of Krems on the Danube, still 

 produces excellent saflron, though only to a very small extent ; the 

 district was formerly celebrated for the drug. Saffi'on is produced in 

 considerable quantity in Ghayn, an elevated mountain region separating 

 Western Afghanistan from Persia.^ A very little of inferior quality 

 is collected at Pampur in Kashmir, under heavy imposts of the 

 Maharaja.^ Saflron is also cultivated in some districts of China. 

 Finally, the cultivation has been introduced into the United States, 

 and a little saflron is collected by the German inhabitants of Lancaster 

 County, Pennsylvania.^ But in almost all countries the cultivation of 

 saflron is on the decline, and in very many districts has altogether 

 ceased. 



The imports of saffron into the United Kingdom amounted in 1870 

 to 43,950 lb., valued at £95,690. The article is largely exported to 

 India, but there are no general statistics to show the amount. Bombay 

 imported in the year 1872-73, 21,994 lb., value £35,115.^ It is a curious 

 fact that now Spanish safli'on finds regularly its way to India. 



Uses — Safli'on is of no value for any medicinal effects, and retains 

 a place in the pharmacopoeia solely on the ground of its utility as a 

 colouring agent. A peculiar preference for it as a condiment exists in 

 various countries, but especially in Austria, Germany and some districts 

 of Switzerland. This predilection prevails even in England — at least 

 in Cornwall, where the use of saffron for colouring cakes is still 

 common. Saffron is largely used by the natives of India in religious 

 rites, in medicine and for the colouring and flavouring of food. 



As a dye-stuff saffron is no longer employed, at least in this country, 

 its use having been superseded by less costly substances. 



Adulteration — Saffron is often adulterated, but the frauds prac- 

 tised on it are not difficult of detection. Sometimes the falsification 

 consists in the addition of florets of Calendula dyed with logwood, or 

 of safilower, or the stamens of the saflron crocus, any of which may be 

 detected if a small pinch of the drug be dropped on the surface of warm 

 water, when the peculiar form of the saflron stigma will at once become 

 evident. 



'^Statistical Tables relating to Foreiyn Punjab Products, i. (1868)449. — Pharm. 



Countries (Blue Book) 1870. 286. 289. J own. vi. (1875) 279. 



2 Dumesnil, I. c. ® Proc. of (lie American Pharm. Assoc. 



3 Bel lew, From the Indus to the Tigris, 1866. 254. 



Lond. 1874.304. ^Annual Statement of the Trade and 



■*Hugel,A:ascAmir,ii.( 1840) 274. —Powell, Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay 



for 1872-73. pt. ii. 30. 



