# Saffron (Crocus sativus)

**Zafferano**

**Known today as.** The stigmas of *Crocus sativus*.

Kind: Plant  
Qualities: Hot in the second degree, dry in the first (Galenic tradition).

## What did Canale use it for?

In the electuary and the oil for the bewitched (chs. 6, 9).

## What does modern science say?

A costly spice and dye.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **crocin**: the colour
- **safranal**: the scent
- **picrocrocin**: the taste

**Mechanism.** Crocin and safranal act on serotonin and have antioxidant effects; the mechanism in mood is unknown.

**Dose.** Five grams has caused bleeding and collapse; twenty has killed.

**Standing.** Small Iranian trials find it as effective as fluoxetine in mild depression; no regulatory approval.

## What lore surrounds it?

A cordial for the melancholic, meant to gladden the heart; its gold made it a fitting companion to gold itself in the cordial powders.

Greek myth accounts for the flower: the youth Crocus loved the nymph Smilax, and in the best-known telling the gods turned him into the crocus and her into a bindweed or yew; other versions have him take his own life, or Smilax work the change herself to escape him. In every telling the flower springs from human longing.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Commends the Corycian saffron of Cilicia as the best, and warns of its adulteration.

**Nuremberg, 1444.** The city’s saffron inspectors (the *Safranschau*) had a merchant burned together with his adulterated saffron, the most famous of many harsh penalties for falsifying the costliest spice of Europe.

## Sources

- Icy Sedgwick, on crocus folklore.
- Hausenblas, H. A., et al. (2013). “Saffron and major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis.” *Journal of Integrative Medicine* 11.

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*Saffron.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-09-25. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/saffron

Historical description, not medical advice.