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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
6 Min
09/03/2026
Like a splotch of indelible ink, there is one spice that has followed human civilisation almost everywhere it has gone, from temples, royal kitchens, and medicine chests, to trade routes spanning entire continents. That spice is saffron, which also happens to be the world’s most expensive spice. What drives the saffron price is its dearness and painstaking cultivation of the Crocus sativus flower, whose stigma (crimson-coloured sticky tip) makes the spice.
This article takes you through the origin of saffron, which is famous for its striking vermillion hue, exorbitant price per gram, and the punch of colour and flavour that it delivers with just a pinch. What drives the eye-watering saffron price? It takes roughly 150,000 hand-picked flowers to yield just one kilogram of dried saffron threads.
But beyond its price, the story of the saffron spice intertwines mythology, empire, healing, and a remarkable tradition in its use in cooking. So, read on to discover the full history of saffron – where it came from, how people discovered it was edible, how it reached India, what saffron benefits have been documented, and how it continues to shape kitchens and cultures around the world.
Studies point to the Crocus sativus flower being first domesticated in Bronze Age Greece around 1700 BC or earlier. The plant's closest wild ancestor, Crocus cartwrightianus, grows naturally only in mainland Greece and the island of Crete.
Frescoes discovered at Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, dating roughly between 1600 and 1500 BC, show young women and monkeys picking crocus flowers. There was one fresco that even shows a woman applying saffron to a bleeding foot. The settlement was eventually buried under volcanic ash, which preserved this art for millennia.
Saffron is a triploid plant, meaning it carries three sets of chromosomes and cannot reproduce on its own without human intervention. This peculiarity means that every saffron crocus grown anywhere in the world today is descended from those original ancient Greek plants.
The earliest human use of wild crocus species was as pigment, and evidence of crocus-based paint has been found in cave paintings in present-day Iraq, estimated to be around 50,000 years old. The vivid golden-yellow dye the threads produced was striking, and early people began collecting the stigmas for that reason alone.
The transition to medicine appears to have come next. The Santorini fresco of the woman treating her foot wound suggests that Bronze Age communities understood saffron had some effect on the body. The Sumerians used wild crocus species in their remedies and ritual potions. An ancient Egyptian papyrus dated around 2000 BC also references the plant in a medicinal context.
Going back to ancient Persia, saffron threads were scattered into hot teas as a treatment for low mood and physical fatigue. Persian royal cooks began adding it to food for colour and for its distinctive taste. Over time, these uses of saffron in food spread along trade routes, and the saffron flavour became prized in its own right. It was earthy, slightly bitter, faintly floral, with what some describe as a metallic undertone. Ancient Chinese texts also show a herbalist noting that saffron could be used to flavour wine, suggesting a similar logic used by the Persians.
After spreading beyond Greece, saffron quickly became known across the ancient world. By around 2300 BC, a city in the Akkadian Empire was already called the ‘city of saffron’, and Mesopotamian cultures such as the Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians recorded its use in medicine and dye.
In ancient Persia, cultivation expanded widely by the 10th century BC, with saffron used in royal carpets and funeral shrouds, and reportedly planted across the empire by Darius the Great. In Egypt, it served as a flavouring, perfume, and supposed aphrodisiac, while in Greece it appeared in mythology and literature and was used as a cosmetic dye.
Greek and Roman physicians recommended saffron as a digestive aid, and the Romans even scattered it in public spaces to scent the air. Alexander the Great was said to bathe his wounds in saffron-infused water for healing.
By the medieval period in Europe, saffron had become extremely valuable: strict laws punished adulteration, and monks used saffron mixed with egg white to create a golden glaze in illuminated manuscripts as a substitute for gold leaf.
The story of saffron's arrival in India, and Kashmir specifically, is told through competing accounts, each carrying its own historical weight. The most common historical explanation is that Persia introduced saffron to India. It is said that Persian forces transplanted saffron corms into the Kashmir valley sometime before 500 BC, intending to expand their empire's agricultural reach. Phoenician merchants later marketed Kashmiri saffron as a luxury dye and a remedy for melancholy, popularising its spread.
A second version, preserved in Buddhist texts, credits an Indian missionary named Madhyantika, who was sent to Kashmir in the 5th century BC. According to this account, it was he who sowed the first Kashmiri saffron crop, after which its cultivation and use spread throughout India.
A third and more romantic account places the arrival much later, in the 12th century, when two travelling Sufi saints, Khawaja Masood Wali and Sheikh Sharif-u-din Wali, are said to have gifted a crocus bulb to a local chieftain who had cured them of an illness. The site of that gift is still considered sacred in parts of Kashmir today.
Among all the saffrons grown in the world, Kashmiri saffron is widely regarded as the finest. Researches show that Kashmiri saffron contains a crocin content of 8.72%, compared to the Iranian variety's 6.82%. Crocin is the carotenoid compound responsible for saffron's colour and many of its medicinal properties, and so a higher crocin level means more colour, stronger aroma, and greater potency.
In 2020, Kashmir Valley saffron was awarded a Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Government of India – a certification that protects its identity and prevents cheaper Iranian saffron from being passed off as the Kashmiri variety. The GI tag had a direct effect on prices, with rates rising significantly in the years following certification.
When it comes to Indian cuisine, especially Mughlai and Kashmiri ones, a few soaked strands are added to rice (biryan, pulao, kheer), curries (korma), sweets (kulfi, phirni, shrikhand), to impart aroma and colour. Saffron is also vital to Ayurveda and Unani medicine, valued for its antioxidant properties that support digestion, improve mood, and aid respiratory and circulatory health.
Few substances have been as consistently prized across as many cultures and as many centuries as the saffron spice. It began as a wild plant in ancient Greece, crossed oceans in merchant ships, survived wars, and outlasted empires. The history of saffron is a story about human attention, much like the vanilla spice and the willingness to notice something remarkable in the natural world and slowly, carefully, transform it.
