Abstract
Saffron is highly valued for its unique aroma, taste, color, and medicinal properties. Iran is one of the most important saffron-producing countries. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of climatic and environmental characteristics of six sites (Shirvan, Faruj, Zavareh, Torbat-e Heydarieh, Ghayen, and Birjand) on the yield and qualitative, and biochemical characteristics of saffron. The studied sites were considered as treatments. The obtained data were analyzed based on a nested design, where the village within the site was considered an experimental error, and the farm within the village within each site was considered a sampling error. The Torbat-e Heydarieh treatment with altitudes of ~1323.3 m produced the maximum saffron flower yield (0.83 g m2), stigma yield (0.098 g m2), safranal content (15.8%), picrocrocin content (30.6%), and crocins content (69.3%). Evidently that the low maximum summer temperature in the area is one of the reasons for its superiority. The correlation analysis between traits shows that the maximum summer temperature had a significant negative correlation with saffron flower yield, stigma yield, and picrocrocin and crocin content. Results showed the highest total flavonoid and phenol content and DPPH activity related to Shirvan and Faruj. Although the results showed that selenium could increase the quantitative and qualitative yield of saffron, this requires further studies to confirm it. Based on the findings, it is concluded that I) qualitative and quantitative characteristics of saffron are strongly controlled by the environmental and climatic conditions and II) Razavi Khorasan province had a significant advantage in terms of flower and stigma yield and safranal, picrocrocin and crocin content of saffron and North Khorasan province in terms of biochemical characteristics.
Highlights
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the most expensive cash crops among medicinal plants in the world and it has been called “the red gold” (Cardone et al, 2020)
Means comparison showed the highest total flavonoid content (14.01 and 14.14 mg QE g-1 DW) and total phenol content (125.5 and 126.5 mg gallic acid (GA) g-1 DW) and DPPH activity related to S1 (Shirvan) and S2 (Faruj)
The current study focused on the effect of different climatic parameters on quantitative, qualitative, and biochemical characteristics of saffron in the six strategic saffron production regions (North, Razavi, and South Khorasan provinces) in Iran
Summary
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is one of the most expensive cash crops among medicinal plants in the world and it has been called “the red gold” (Cardone et al, 2020). Saffron is the most expensive spice globally, and it has a special place in Iran’s industrial and export products (Kafi et al, 2018). In addition to the stigma and corm yield, the spice quality represents an important parameter that contributes to increase the saffron economic value. Saffron is mainly cultivated in Iran (the source of more than 90% of world production), followed by India, Spain, Morocco, Greece, and Italy (Babaei et al, 2014; Shokrpour, 2019). Saffron global production is estimated at 418 t y-1 on 121,338 ha. It is known as beneficial for human health due to three main bioactive compounds: crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal (Cardone et al, 2020). Iran is the leading producer of this product in the world with an annual production of 200 tons of dry saffron from more than 60,000 ha of arable land, the maximum yield of saffron in Iran is about 7.5 kg ha-1, and the average is 3.96 kg ha-1, which shows a significant difference compared to countries such as Spain with 15 kg ha-1 and Pakistan with 9 kg ha-1 (Feli et al, 2018)
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