Saffron Uses

Saffron spice has been used in a variety of ways for thousands of years. Saffron has always been one of the most widely utilized and also most expensive spices in the World and saffron spice remains the same today. The high price is mainly due to the huge amount of saffron crocuses needed to produce just an ounce of pure saffron and in addition to this there is the intensive hand harvesting and sorting methods needed to prepare the spice.

The diverse uses of saffron spices include using saffron in medicine. Saffron is used as a herb in both unani medicine and ayurveda. In India saffron spice is used to treat diseases such as diabetes, arthritis of the joints, infertility and also a wide range of other ailments. In addition to India, Tibetan and Chinese medicine also find wide varietys of uses for saffron spice. Indians regard Kashmiri saffron above all other kinds of saffron available from around the World and in fact in India the spice saffron is held in such high regard that it is deemed a demonstration of respect to a person if saffron is served in the food that a guest is served.

More ecently saffron has been used as a natural food additive in replacement of artificial food additives that are in fact not healthy for the body. Instead of using artificial synthetic additives, it is indeed a happy day for us all that a move across to using quality natural ingredients is prevailing. Nowadays the spice saffron’s usage is widespread in commerce and in the food technology.

The use of saffron in cooking is extremely widespread and ranges from Spanish paella to French bouillebase, Saudi-Arabian coffee and tea, Moroccon stews, Italian risotto, desserts and much much more. Please see our section on the use of saffron spices in cooking for more details on this most flexible and highly regarded addition to almost all chefs spice racks.