History of Saffron

The origin of saffron goes back, according to some references, the third millennium BC. in Persia, from which it begins to be easy for culinary uses, Medical, and even religious rites and ceremonies.

In Ancient Egypt was known as Karkom, a widely used product that appears on the Songs of Solomon. You may also be part of embalming, used for coloring in shrouds of mummies.

Around the years 1700-1600 aC. in a fresco from the palace of Minos in Knossos (Crete) can identify a picture of saffron, and on the island of Thera, where a young crop it by a certain ceremony in which pica stigmas of the plant to obtain (Minos was chopped in full flower).

In Greece this term would lead to Krokos and Roman civilization Crocum. The literature of these two cultures often refers to the color and smell of saffron, bringing it closer to the refined manners of high society in classical antiquity. It was widely used as an erotic perfume, dye Party Dresses, ornate flooring in rooms that housed a feast or just as a filler for cushions in these rooms, showing the purchasing power of the family who organized the event (an anecdote of the period of Imperial Rome says the streets of the Italian capital were sprayed with saffron into it the Emperor Nero).

The commercial importance of this product with the passing of the years and its high economic value has become one of the most important market. Already in ancient times was transported through the spice route that linked Europe and Asia (Several classical authors such as Pliny or Virgil recognize a higher quality of saffron was exported from Asia Minor and the former China). During the Middle Ages, the port of Venice became the main recipient and provider of saffron in the Old Continent (especially German and British buyers). In the fourteenth century consumption was increased when used to cope with the effects that caused the black plague in much of the continent.

The works in world literature offers its importance as significant as the Bible in La Iliad to use this plant in food, rituals and other events related to the customs of high society.