Saffron Agronomy and Technology
Year:2014 | Volume:2 | Issue:3|Papers Count:7

In this research, effects of chemical and biological fertilizers on qualitative and quantitative traits of saffron, were evaluated in a field experiment as randomized complete block design with three replications at Saffron Research Farm of Shahed University during growing season of 2012-2013. Experimental factors were chemical nitrogen fertilizer (0, 25 and 50 kg.ha-1) and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria including Pseudomonas and Bacillusas biofertilizer (inoculation and uninoculation). The results indicated that complete application of chemical fertilizer with biofertilizer enhanced yield of saffron, up to 217%, compared to control. The highest yield obtained in application of biofertilizer and 50 kg.ha-1 chemical fertilizer. It is worth noting that control (no inoculation) resulted in highest percentage of ingredients of stigma. Application of 50 kg.ha-1 of fertilizer was caused severe loss of quality traits in stigma, as safranal and crocin contents decreased by 5.13% and 10.9%, respectively. Integrated application of 25 kg.ha-1 nitrogen fertilizer and bio-fertilizer increased the picrocrocin up to 11.9% compared to control. Application of 50 kg.ha-1 nitrogen fertilizer along with biofertilizer was the efficient treatment in increment of stigma yield and qualitative characteristics of saffron leaves. The concentration of phosphorus, zinc and copper increased up to 83.05, 69.36 and 86.6%, respectively compared to control. Totally, Pseudomonas and Bacillus inoculation increased most of the qualitative and quantitative traits of saffron through nutrients uptake.

In order to investigate the response of saffron to rate and time of application and two kinds of potassium (K) fertilizers, a factorial experiment was conducted with three factors, including the amount of potassium (0, 20.75, 41.5, 65.25, 83 and 103.75 kg K.ha-1); time of application (annual application of K, and application of cumulative potassium needed for 4 years in the first year; these plots received 415, 332, 249, 166, 83, 0 Kg K.ha-1, respectively in the first year and at other three years not received any K fertilizer); and sources of potassium (K2SO4 and KCl) with three replications in a randomized complete block design in Gonabad agriculture and natural resource research station for 4 years. Results of the first year were not analyzed, because these results not related to fertilizer treatments. Results showed that effect of potassium rate on saffron dry stigma was significant (P<0.05) and the highest dry stigma yield was obtained from application of 20.75 Kg K.ha-1.Application time of K fertilizer had a significant effect on saffron dry stigma yield and application of fertilizer each year increased saffron dry stigma yield significantly (P<0.05) in compared to application of all fertilizer at the first year. Effects of sources of K on dry stigma yield of saffron was significant (P<0.05) and application of K in the form of K2SO4 increased dry stigma yield in compared to muriate of KCl treatment.

Saffron is a triploid, sterile plant, used as a spice and medicinalplant in all countries. Stigma is the most important part of saffron. So far no reliable molecular methods were provided to identify and prediction of the three/multi branches species. In this study, using different bioinformatics algorithms, new tools for prediction based on Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism molecular markers is presented. Five alleles M1311400, M151200, M12100 and M10850 selected as the most important classifier by Attribute Weighting models which has the potential to cluster and recognize the three from multi branches stigma. K-Means and K-Medoids unsupervised clustering algorithms were fully able to cluster each genotype to the right classes. Our results showed that for the first time, data mining techniques can be effectively used to genetic differentiation between three and multi stigma with above 90 percent the accuracy andprecision. These methods can use in gene mapping and selection by biomarker.

In order to isolation and identification of causal agents of corm rot and their control, the sampling was done from corms in farms of Bushroueye, southern Khorasan province. After culturing of sections of infected corms, the fungi, Penicillium digitatum, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus stolonifer were isolated and identified. For their control test, four concentrations of Pseudomonas fluorescens CHAO, Trichoderma harzianum Bi, and four concentrations of fungicides, cupper oxichlorore and benomil, were used with four replications. The control effect of antagonists and fungicides were determined by measurement of diameter of pathogens colony on medium. The results showed that the maximum of control of antagonistic fungus were obtained in concentrations of 1×107 and 1×108, and in the case of antagonistic bacterium wereshown in concentrations of 1×109 and 1×1010. The fungicides had maximum control in concentrations of 3×10-3 and 4×10-3. In general, among of the treatments, T. harzianum was most effective to reducing the growth of pathogenic fungi.

Saffron is one of the important agricultural product and North Khorasan, Razavi and South is considered as the major producers in Iran. In this study Central Market Hypothesis or price leadership has been examined. For this purpose Johanson Co-integration test for monthly price data since 2006 to 2011 for these provinces has been used. Main results indicated that South Khorasan is a price leader between these provinces. In addition, saffron market is unit in South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi and the law of one price is indefeasible. Moreover, North Khorasan has a separate market and in long run saffron market in this province is not an impressible market. The adoption of a policy on each of the three provinces, affects the other two the product market provinces.

We aimed to investigate the effect of saffron supplementation on the cardio-respiratory endurance factors in the healthy non-active girls. After filling a health and fitness questionnaire and perform 1-mile run test, 14 nonactive female students were selected among the eligible students in the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili (Age: 20.7±1.38 years; BMI: 21.1±1.8 kg/m2) and they performed Bruce test on a computerized treadmill connected to a respiratory gas analyzer in three stages with one week interval. In this study, test has been done on subjects in stage one after placebo consumption. In the second stage, similarly test done after one week consumption of dry saffron stigma (300 mg/day) and the results were measured. Analysis of Covariance and Bonferroni pair-wise comparison were used for the data analysis. Results showed that the consumption of 300 mg saffron for one week caused a significant enhancement in VO2, VO2max, and time to exhaustion and significant reduction in the resting blood pressure and resting heart rate as well as significant increase in fat oxidation and a significant reduction in carbohydrate consumption during the Bruce test (p<0.05). It seems saffron consumption has ergogenic effect on the cardio-respiratory performance in non-active female students.

The medicinal plants are important sources of antioxidants. Natural antioxidants increase the antioxidant capacity of the plasma and reduce the risk of certain diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and stroke. Synthetic antioxidants commonly used in processed foods have side effects and are toxic. Therefore, there is a need for more effective, less toxic and cost effective antioxidants derived from medicinal plants. Saffron petal is a rich plant source of polyphenolic compounds. Hence, this research was conducted for studying the antioxidant properties and phenolic compositions of saffron petal. In this study, saffron petal extraction was prepared by ethanol, methanol (30, 70 and 90%) and water. The phenolic compositions were determined using Folinciocalteau method. In next step, antioxidant activity evaluated using generates free radical of DPPH. The results showed that the type and contents of solvent significantly affect the phenolic values and antioxidant activity. Also there was a significant relation between phenolic compound content and radical scavenging activity. Moreover, the antioxidant activity and phenolic compound concentration were increased by increasing solvent concentration. Finally, it was concluded that the ethanol extract could be considered as a effective solvent for the maximum extraction of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity.