Saffron cultivation is widespread in a number of regions of the world, such as Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Iran, and Western Asia, where it is mostly spread in meadows and agricultural lands. Saffron is a perennial herbaceous plant thanks to its corms, its rounded, swollen root, and its filamentous leaves with a pale white central vein, reaching a length of To 30 cm, the flowers are long, tubular, red to orange in color, reaching 10 cm in length. Saffron usually blooms between the months of October and December. The used parts of saffron are the stigmas of the flowers, which have been known for their medicinal and therapeutic properties since ancient times. The luxurious yellow dye is derived from this plant mentioned in various Greek myths with its scent and flavour.
Medicinal uses of saffron:
Saffron is used to treat a large number of diseases, including: enlarged lymph nodes, amenorrhea, gallbladder (perforated ulcer in the eyelid), asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, colds, brain diseases, conjunctivitis, and inflammation. Bladder, depression, diabetes, dysmenorrhea, dropsy, epistaxis, gout, headache, bloody sputum, hepatitis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hysteria, laryngitis, and jelly retention. (puerperal fluid), measles, feelings of despair, kidney degeneration, nerve tension, nerve pain, parotitis, eye infection, plague, spleen inflammation, tonsillitis, shivering, and hysteritis.
Active ingredients:
Saffron has therapeutic properties thanks to the medicinal substances God has bestowed upon it, such as crocin, crocetin, picrocrocin, and safranal (carotenoids).
Saffron is known to have distinct properties from others, so it is used as a carminative, a menstrual aid, a diaphoretic for children, and for chronic uterine bleeding in adult women.
Its ability to fight cancer:
Scientists believe that saffron has the ability to fight cancer and prolong the average lifespan of patients, and using it medicinally with black seed reduces the incidence of tumors by a certain percentage.
The medicinal substances in saffron, especially crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal, contribute to reducing the growth of human cancer cells in the laboratory.
Saffron extract (dimethyl-crocin) has anti-cancer, anti-mutagenic, and immunomodulatory effects.
Crocetin has a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the synthesis of DNA and RNA in the separated nucleus and inhibits the activity of the purified RNA polymerase II. Crocetin also caused dose-dependent inhibition of DNA and protein synthesis.
Other references state that the plant is useful in reducing cancers of the abdomen, bladder, breast, colon, diaphragm, ear, eye, kidney, throat, liver, mouth, neck, spleen, stomach, tonsil, and uterus, and is useful in cases of fibroids, leukemia, lymphoma, and various skin tumors.