MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK SAFFRON STIGMAS FROM KOZANI REGION

Morphological characteristics, such as length and thickness of the filament, are important in the trade of saffron, though cannot serve as a safe criterion for identification of the origin, especially in cases of products registered as “appellation of origin”. In order to collect data for the morphological characteristics of “Krokos Kozanis” saffron in filaments, an extended sampling was carried out among the producers of the respective area.
No systematic measurement of the length of stigmas or thickness of the trumpet upper end has been reported before for Greek saffron though some scattered information can be found for stigmas of other regions.
A set of 662 representative samples was collected in 1999 from an equal number of producers.
Except for genetic reasons the dimensions of the threads are related to the way the growers separate the stigmas from petals and stamens.
Processing is also a parameter that may influence the final size of the dried threads.
An interesting finding was that only the 8% of the samples had a length of stigmas more than 30 mm.
For the majority of the samples (87.6%) the length ranged between 20 – 30 mm.
Concerning the thickness of the thread measured at the head of the stigmas, the most representative group (43.2%) had stigmas 1.5-2 mm thick.
Further investigation is needed with regards to the plant material, the agricultural practices and the overall handling of the product so that the stigmas of “Krokos Kozanis” to present less scattered dimensions in the near future.

I International Symposium on Saffron Biology and Biotechnology

T. Mitsopoulou, M.Z. Tsimidou

Crocus sativus, quality control

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.650.19