Saffron Agronomy and Technology
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

Saffron has strong ties with the economic, social, environmental and political aspects of agriculture in the country with particular impact on the local communities of the growing area. The role of Iranian farmers in domestication and cultural development of saffron has been clearly demonstrated in the international literature. However, the past scientific achievement of the Iranian scientists on the agronomic attributes of saffron seems to be insufficient with regards to the importance of this crop and the expectation of international scientific bodies. In this review an attempt has been made to look at the past agronomic research status and find a trend for the present and a prospect for the future. On this bases although the history of conventional research in Iran on saffron goes back to seven decades ago a dormant period of almost 40 years up to the 1960s is evidenced. Basically in the 60s the pioneer researchers from Khorasan founded the conventional research on basic agronomic aspects and in the later stages with establishment of organization such as Organization for Scientific and Industrial Research (Khorasan branch) and expansion of graduate studies in the universities, research activities was progressed. These activities gained a momentum in the last two decades particularly in recent years due to establishment of different public and private organizations associated with saffron such as National Saffron Council, permanent secretariat for saffron festival, organizing various seminars and conferences, establishment of research group for saffron in a University, establishment of saffron focal point for science and industry, establishment of saffron institute and publication of two specialized scientific Journal on saffron. Based on these achievements it is hoped to enhance the conventional research topics and shift them towards a holistic and comprehensive approaches for novel research on the subjects such as production under controlled environment, evaluation of yield gaps, growth and development modeling, crop physiology and ecology and impacts of climate change on saffron expansion area etc. This could be fulfilled by transferring the findings to the fields and presenting the results to the world scientific societies by publishing in international Journals.

In order to investigate the effects of different maternal corm weight and different levels of cow manure on saffron (Crocus sativus L.) production, an experiment was conducted at the Agricultural Research Station, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad during 2011- 2012 and 2012- 2013 growing seasons. For this purpose a factorial experiment was used based on complete randomized block design with three replications and 16 treatments. The experimental treatments were done at 4 levels of maternal corm weight (1.1- 3, 3.1- 5, 5.1- 7 and 7.1- 9 g) and 4 levels of cow manure (0, 20, 40 and 60 t.ha-1). Variance analysis results for studied characteristics of saffron corm showed that maternal corm weight, cow manure and maternal corm weight × cow manure had significant effects on these characteristics. Among the experimental treatments, maternal corm with 7.1- 9 g weight and the use rate of 60 t.ha-1 of cow manure treatment had both the highest total corm number (510 corm.m-2) and corm yield (1044 g.m-2). It seems that the corms with higher weight in the first year produce larger number of replacement corm than the corms with lower weight. The saffron flower yield characteristics showed that flower yield in the first year increased by increasing the maternal corm weight. The results of variance analysis of the number of flowers and fresh and dry yield of flower and stigma of saffron in the second year showed that the maternal corm weight, cow manure and maternal corm weight × cow manure had significant effects on them. These characteristics increased by increasing the maternal corm weight and levels of cow manure. It seems that producing replacement corm with high weight in the first year, requires large amount of maternal corm and high levels of cow manure usage.

Functional genomics methods such as Expressed Sequenced Tag (EST) analysis have provided possibilities for identification, expression analysis and study of transcripts involved in metabolic and regulatory networks. In order to identify of genome orientation and to determine gene networks involved in the evolution of saffron stigma, 6202 EST sequences from mature saffron stigma were analysed. After initial trimming, sequences clustering and assembling resulted in 910 unigenes (604 Coting's and 304 Singleton). BLAST X revealed that 570 unigene had significant hit among the Arabidopsis protein database, whereas the remaining unigenes displayed no significant match with the any hit. Classifying and gene enrichment analysis of unigenes, put them into 31 distinct functional groups, where 12 groups of them were statistically significant at α=0.01. Gene network of high represented Coting's (which had greater than 20 transcripts), showed that there is a complex gene interaction in mature saffron stigmas. Results revealed that jasmonic acid signalling pathway and its transcription factors such as MYB21 and Zinc fingers play a key role in regulating of stigma primary and secondary metabolism, especially in metabolism of carotenoids (as the most important saffron metabolites). The genes identified in this study could be good candidates for manipulating the evolution and metabolism of saffron stigma.

In order to investigate the effects of different levels of applied wheat straw as mulch in different dates on flower characteristics and corms behavior of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in the second year, a field experiment was conducted as factorial layout based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran in years of 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The experimental treatments were all combination of different levels of wheat straw as mulch (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 t. ha-1) based on surface applied method in three different dates (June, August and October). The results showed that the applied wheat straw as mulch in different dates had significant effects on flower characteristics of saffron (flower number, fresh and dried flower and stigma+ style yields). Based on these results, applied wheat straw as mulch in October had highest effects on increasing flower number, fresh and dried flower yields (by 46, 61 and 65%, respectively). In addition, applied wheat straw as mulch had significant effects on number and yield of replacement corms. The applied straw as mulch in October increased yield of replacement corms with 12 g or higher weight and total corm yield of saffron by 104 and 103 %, respectively, as compared to control treatment.

Saffron as the most expensive agriculture and medicinal product of world, is a plant in Consider to aridity resistant has interesting role in social and economical status of arid and semi-arid of southern and Razavi Khorasan provinces. The aim of this paper, is determining the suitable area in Saffron cultivation with regards to effective factors. The climatic elements data were obtain from Khorasan Razavi Meteorological Organization for 1989-2012 periods. The topographic data including; relief, slope, aspect and TIN layers extracts from 1: 50000 topographic maps of the region. The land use and vegetation land cover maps were prepared using 1: 50000 maps of National soil and water Research Institute. The spatial analysis facilities of GIS were used for numerical calculation and drawing the requiring maps. A spatial geo database from region was established then spatial and description data entered on this database. Using by AHP software each layer weighted by its importance. Finally, by overlaying analysis in ArcGIS, cultivated area were classified by its capabilities .The results showed that Central and Southern Kashmar plain are the best capabilities for Saffron cultivation that in present statues, these lands specified to dry farming, irrigated farming, semi condense and condense rangelands.

In this study, dispersive liquid- liquid micro extraction based on solidification of floating organic drop- UV- Vis spectrophotometry is used for the extraction and determination of cadmium in saffron samples. Ethanol as the disperser solvent, 1- undecanol as the extract ant solvent and acetone as dilution solvent were used. The studies showed that the type and volume of disperser solvent, extract ant solvent and dilution solvent has a significant effect in the extraction efficiency. Under the optimal conditions, detection limit of 0.0005 mg.mL-1 was obtained. The procedure was applied to saffron samples of Torbat-e- Heydarieh, Ghaenat and Bakharz and the recovery percent for the saffron samples contaminated with 0.1 μg/mL of cadmium was.