JOURNAL OF SAFFRON RESEARCH
Year:2019 | Volume:6 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:10

Saffron is a spice derived from the flowers of saffron which has been known in the world as an expensive spice. But huge amount of the petals are discarded as useless waste. The color of saffron petals is due to the compounds that called anthocyanins and flavonoids. Anthocyanins, are a class of natural compounds and secondary metabolites in family of flavonoids. Indicators are the Colored organic compounds with complex structure which change in pH change their color. In this study, wastes of saffron of 32 different regions were collected from fields of saffron of Razavi Khorasan, Southern Khorasan and Kerman in November and then were transferred to the freezer with a temperature of-15 ° C. The amount of anthocyanins was determined in wastes of saffron then rainfall and temperature in different regions between April and November 2014 were asked from Bureau of Meteorology. The SPSS 18 was used for statistical analysis. The results showed that there was a strong correlation between anthocyanins and amount of rain. Due to the abundant presence of anthocyanins in saffron waste, successful pursuit done to use these natural pigments as an indicator. Results showed the color of anthocyanin pigments changes drastically with change in pH value, so it can be used as a natural and effective indicator to detect acid and base.

Saffron is one of the most important crop in agriculture and export of Iran and identification of the reduced agents is important. Tomato spotted wilt virus (SWV) is one of the destructive viruses. Weeds are reservoir plants of viruses. In order to detect and identify the TSWV on reservoir plants, 37 weed samples were collected from South Khorasan, including Birjand, Sarayan, Ferdows and Ghaen during May and April 2017 and were tested by DAS-ELISA. The positive samples in ELISA were tested by RT-PCRand specific primers of Nucleoprotein (N) gene were amplified a fragments with 777 bp length and sequenced by Macrogene company. The results showed thatCardaria draba and Hordeum murinumwere infected by TSWV. In Phylogenetic analysis with two isolates and 20 isolates of gene bank two groups were formed. Two isolates of this study, felt in Group II and subgroup A. The closest gene bank isolate was from Montenegro (GU339506) with 97. 3% on Chenopodium Quinoa and the furthest isolate was from Italy (GU36971) on Nicotiana tabacum. This research was the first survey of weeds as a natural host of TSWV in saffron fields of South Khorasan.

Saffron is a triploid plant from Iridaceae family, which is propagated only via mother corms. In vitro culture techniques can accelerate the propagation of this plant in order to comply with the increasing demands of farmers to this important medicinal plant. The purpose of this research was to find out a proper protocol to cormlet production on the mother corms were collected in August and early September months which cold pretreated. To this end, two saffron ecotypes of corms were collected from Qaen and Souht Khorassan regions. Samples were kept at 3 1° C for 13 to 15 weeks. After sterilization, samples were transferred into half strength MS culture medium with 6% sucrose, 2 mg. l-1 IBA and 2, 4 and 6 mg. l-1 BAP based on a CRD with five replications. Control was without growth regulators. The results showed that there were no significant differences between growth regulator concentrations in cormlet production. However, the August samples were significantly different in the number of cormlets per mother corm and cormlet diameter. According to the results, sufficient cold pre-treatment on corms harvested in August and culture in 1/2 MS medium without any growth regulators are recommended for the production of micro-corms of saffron through in vitro culture, which is also economically important.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of saffron fields in Gonabad County and provide solutions for improving the using techniques of production factors. In order to achieve the research objectives, a sample of 110 saffron fields in Gonabad County was studied in 2017. Considering variable return to scale, the average of technical, allocative and economic efficiency were computed with 0. 922, 0. 593 and 0. 556, respectively, indicating that the saffron fields, despite having high technical efficiency, do not have a decent allocative efficiency and they have not succeeded in achieving the cost minimizing input quantities. Subsequently, by assessing the cost minimizing input quantities, it was found that if saffron farmers managed resources properly, they would be able to achieve the current amount of yields despite a considerable reduction in the amounts of four inputs of corms, manure, chemical fertilizer and water, and only a slight increase in the input of labor. In this way, the operating cost per kg of saffron flower would reduce by about 44% per on average. Considering there is evidence that the saffron farmers of the study area have a tendency to use high-input cultivation systems, it is suggested that appropriate policies be developed to improve the knowledge of farmers and change their attitudes towards cultivation of saffron, so that they will be aware of the adverse effects of these systems.

Salicylic acid is one of the growth regulator substances that involved in the plant physiological processes. In order to evaluate the different doses of salicylic acid, application methods and corm weight effects on saffron, an experiment was conducted as split factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the saffron Research Field in College of Aburaihan, University of Tehran during 2016. The treatments were consisted of method application (corm priming, foliar application) as the main plot, three levels of salicylic acid (no application and application at concentrations of 1 and 2 mM), two corm weights (small corm (3-5 g) and large corm (8-10 g)) as subplots. The results showed that the photosynthetic pigments (such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids), soluble protein, leaf soluble protein, leaf total carbohydrate, fresh weight of corm were increased with salicylic acid. Big corms had significant effect on these traits and they were also increased with hormone application compared to control. The highest leaf carbohydrates (4. 9 mg. g-1 fw), leaf length (252 mm), leaf area (318 mm), corm soluble proteins (1. 8 mg. g-1 fw), leaf soluble proteins (1. 6 mg. g fw) and number of daughter corm (13. 5) were obtained for priming method and the highest photosynthetic pigments (including chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids (with 12, 9. 5 and 1. 19 mg. g-1 fw, respectively), corm carbohydrates (5. 2 mg. g-1 fw), and fresh weight of the daughter corms (20. 4 g), in the hormone method were obtained in foliar application. Finally, the results of this research indicated that the positive effects of salicylic acid (1 and 2 mM) in both application methods and big corm weight on the physiological and biochemical characteristics of saffron.

Some plants with their chemical compounds affect the growth of adjacent plants. This research was carried out in order to investigate the allelopathic effects of above ground and below ground tissues of saffron on seedling growth indices of cumin and tomato seed as factorial layout based on a completely randomized design with four replications. The research was conducted at University of Torbat Heydrieh during 2017. The results showed that the effect of extract tissues, concentration and their interaction were not significant on root length, stem length and seedling of cumin but they had significant effect at 1% probability level for germination percentage, germination rate, mean germination time, weight and length of root, stem and seedling and seed vigor II. The results also revealed that corm exteract had the highest impact on most of indigenous growth indices. The highest germination rate was observed in control and leaf-corm extract treatments (with 4. 72 and 4. 75 seeds per day, respectively) and the highest root dry weight was observed for leaf-corm extract with 0. 25 concenteration. The results on tomato showed that the effect of leaf, corm and leaf-corm extracts were significant on germination percentage, germination rate, mean germination time and weight and length of root. Increasing in saffron exteract concenteration decreased germination percentage, germination rate, shoot, root and seedling length and weight and vigor indeices on cumin and tomato. In the case for all growth indices, the leaf extract was more effectivethan other tissues. The results also showed that by increasing in concentration caused a reduction in the percentage and rate of germination, shoot length, seedling and root and seed indindices in cumin and tomato. The final result of this research showed that cultivation of saffron with crop rotation induced allelopathy effect on cumin and tomato. Therfore, tomato can be rotated with saffron rather than cumin.

Optimization of inputs such as fertilizer consumption and corm weight are sustainable management approaches to conserve resources and mitigate environmental pollutions. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a statistical technique for optimization of multiple factors which determine optimum process conditions by combining experimental designs. In this work, optimization of cow manure and corm weight rates on flower yield, stigma yield, style weight and qualitative criteria of saffron using central composite design was done. This experiment was conducted with 13 treatments and two replications at the Research Field of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during the growing season of 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. The treatments were allocated based on low and high levels of cow manure (0 and 40 t. ha-1, respectively) and corm weight (7 and 20 t. ha-1, respectively). Flower number, fresh weight of flower, dry weight of stigma, dry weight of style, stigma yield and crocin (coloring agent), picrocrocin (a specific bitter taste) and safranal (the main cause of odor) contents were calculated as dependent variables and changes of these variables were evaluated by a regression model. The quality of the fitted model was judged using the determination coefficient (R2). The results showed that the effect of linear component was significant (p≤ 0. 01) on all studied characteristics. Effect of square component was significant (p≤ 0. 01) on all studied criteria except for crocin content. Interaction effect of full quadratic was not significant on none of these traits. The range of R2 was calculated from 79. 28 to 94. 30. The highest simulated and observed values of flower number (93 and 81. 36 flowers. m-2, respectively) and stigma yield (0. 523 and 0. 46 g. m-2, respectively) observed in 40 tons cow manure per ha and 13. 5 tons corms per ha. The highest simulated and observed values of safranal (38. 94 and 38. 07 𝑬 𝟑 𝟑 𝟎 𝟏 %, respectively) and crocin (170. 41 and 170. 36 𝑬 𝟒 𝟒 𝟎 𝟏 %, respectively) contents were recorded for 40 tons cow manure per ha-1 and 20 tons corms per ha. The slope of flower number, fresh weight of flower, dry weight of style, dry weight of stigma and qualitative criteria enhance by an increase in cow manure up to 40 t. ha-1 was higher under high levels than low levels. In general, it seems that resource use optimization based on the RSM may be suitable cropping approach for sustainable production of saffron.

Among environmental stresses, drought stress is one of the main stresses around the world. To mitigate the effects of environmental stresses, it is important to find genotypes that have genes and desirable traits. To this porpose, one of the most important objectives was to understand the molecular mechanisms associated with drought resistance in plants. With recent advances in molecular genetics, hundreds of genes that were induced by stress had been identified and used as gene candidates for genetic engineering. Saffron is a plant that grows in arid and semi-arid regions, and unlike many plants, it is a heroine with a different heat regime. The presence of numerous genes to deal with drought stress limitations in this plant could be investigated. By recognizing the genes involved in creating drought resistance and selecting suitable native varieties, saffron can produce relatively similar crops in most areas with different climatic conditions. In this study, the presence of AREB, DREB and MPK genes in saffron was proved for the first time. The patterns of expression of these key genes were investigated using Real Time-PCR technique in different tissues of saffron plant. Drought stresses were increased the expression of these genes. This increase in expression in plant and reproductive tissues was different, which may increase the final product of these genes and its resistance to drought. Their expression also had a correlation and mutual influence over each other. The protein structure of these genes had 366, 166, and 315 amino acids, respectively, which by examining this structure, the presence of a region of common acid in them, showed the coexistence of these three genes.

Nutrients availability near to plant root system and the improvement of soil physical conditions with the correct use of sufficient amount of animal manure can improve saffron yield. The effects of animal manure on availability of phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and iron (Fe) elements in soil of saffronfields were evaluated. This study was carried out in nursery unit of Agriculture Faculty, University of Birjandbased on a randomized complete block design with four replications in pots with 25 kg soil during 2014. Treatments were manure levels including 0(as control), 40 and 80 t. ha-1, 40 tons manure per ha + 100% chemical fertilizer and 80 tons manure per ha + 100% chemical fertilizer (based on soil analysis), only chemical fertilizer without manure and application of the same above treatments in unplanted soil with similar conditions. Soil samples were taken after flowering in the second year and nutrients determind in laboratory. The results showed that the simple effects of manure and chemical fertilizers were significant on available phosphorus and potassium in planted soil of saffron and the highest amount of available phosphorus and potassium (with 9. 62 and 763. 7 mg. kg-1 soil, respectively)) were obtained from 80 tons manure per ha. Also, there wasa significant effect between the interaction of chemical and animal fertilizers on Fe concentration in the planted soil. Therefore, increasing in P and K concentrations and decreasing in Fe concentration in planted soil indicated the root activity of saffron, which could play an effective role in the availability of nutrients.

Saffron (Crocus sativus L. ) is a valuable crop and medicinal plant, including with respect to withstand drought significant role in Iran's non-oil exports. Climate is one of the most important in environmental variables. In addition, accurate knowledge of the agricultural products characteristics in every area is the basis of agricultural development. Identification of potential areas for cultivation sets the stage for essential planning for expansion of this crop is essential operation. In this study tried to zone potential areas for saffron crop in Semnan city by assessing climatic conditions so, four weather stations were selected in a statistical 10-year period (during 2004-2014). Modeling and data analysis were performed by using Arc GIS software. According to climatic conditions, suitable for each stage of saffron growth cycle, information layers were classified and weighted. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) were used for integrating information layers. Finally, climatic zoning map of cultivation saffron in Semnan city was drawn. At this study, AHP and ANP techniques were compared. AHP results showed about 59. 5, 34. 5 and 6 percent of the city were best, average and weak for saffron cultivation, respectively. But in ANP method 32, 48 and 20 percent of the city were best, average and weak for the crop cultivation, respectively.