The name saffron comes from the Arabic
zafaran (means yellow) - a sacred color chosen by Buddhist monks for
their robes.
Saffron is very expensive. 200,000 flowers have to be harvested
by hand to obtain 1 pound of saffron - This may explain the high
cost.
Saffron had been prized as a dye medication and culinary spice
since Greek and Roman times. Arab traders introduced the spice to
Spain. Became a mainstay of many Mediterranean diets.
Due to the high cost, this herb is often adulterated. Be careful
in choosing.
Saffron has been used, in small doses only, for coughs, whooping
cough, stomach gas, gastrointestinal colic and insomnia. As an ingredient
in herb liqueurs, it serves as a stimulant to appetite; and it is
sometimes made into a salve for treatment of gout.
Saffron is used in sedatives, as an antispasmodic and for flatulence.
It is also used in perfumes and dyes.
Saffron is used in small doses, in fevers, melancholia, enlargement
of the liver, and asthma. Saffron is also useful for treating anemia,
chlorosis and seminal debility.
Saffron is considered to be a sovereign remedy, not to be excelled
in virtue by any other drug as a stimulant and aphrodisiac.
Other uses of Saffron:
for rheumatism and neuralgia
for looseness of the bowels
to relieve flatulent colic, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, leucorrhoea
for painful affections of the uterus
for headaches
for bruises and superficial sores
hemorrhoids.
snake bite
Saffron Classic Remedy is a classical Ayurvedic remedy that is
useful for chronic diarrhea, chronic discharges and seminal weakness.
Description
Saffron is a small perennial plant which is cultivated in many
places, but particularly in France, Spain, Sicily, and Iran. In
springtime, an onion-like corm produces basal, linear leaves which
are surrounded as a group at the bottom by cylindrical sheaths.
These gray-green leaves have hairy margins and grow to about 1 or1-1/2
feet feet long. About August or September, the corm produces a funnel-shaped,
reddish-purple (sometimes lilac or white) flower.
Dosage
Infusion, milk decoction, powder
Infusion: Steep 6 to 10 stigmas in 1/2 cup water. Take 1/2 to 1
cup a day, unsweetened, a mouthful at a time.
Tincture, dose: 5 to 20 Minims
Saffron tea (1 in 80), dose -1 to 4 ounces.
Safety
Do not use when pregnant; large doses is narcotic
CAUTION: Saffron contains a poison that acts on the central nervous
system and damages the kidneys. Large doses can have severe effects;
10 to 12 grams is a fatal dose for human beings.
The high cost of saffron and the availability of synthetic substitutes
make its use as medicine rare.
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