A detailed guide to the benefits and ways to eat saffron, with an overview of prices

Flowers & Gardening Jan 1, 1970 0 views

The benefits and ways to eat saffron, and saffron prices

Saffron, I believe many people who have watched historical TV dramas have heard of it; this term often appears, but do you understand the benefits and ways to eat saffron, and do you know what effects saffron has? Let's learn about it together with the editor.

The benefits and ways to eat saffron

The benefits of saffron

Promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis, disperses depression and opens knots. Treats depression and pent-up emotions, chest and diaphragm fullness and stuffiness, vomiting of blood, typhoid fever with mania, fright and trance-like states, menstrual blockage in women, postpartum blood stasis and abdominal pain, and swelling and pain from falls and bruises.

1. "Yinshan Zhengyao": Mainly treats heart depression and accumulated stagnation, with qi stuffiness that does not disperse; long-term consumption makes the heart joyful.

2. "Pinhui Jingyao": Mainly disperses depression and regulates blood, relieves chest and diaphragm oppression, opens the appetite and promotes eating and drinking; taken over a long period it nourishes the lower origin, improves complexion, and treats typhoid fever with mania.

3. "Gangmu": Activates blood circulation, and also treats palpitations.

Saffron has the effects of dredging meridians and activating collaterals, promoting menstruation and resolving stasis, dispersing stasis and opening knots, reducing swelling and relieving pain, cooling blood and detoxifying, and easing depression and pent-up emotions; long-term consistent use can bring joy to the heart and comprehensively improve the body's immunity. Modern pharmacological research has proven that it has definite therapeutic effects in improving myocardial blood supply and oxygen supply, and it also has anticancer effects. Because of saffron's unique and remarkable effects, it is widely used in Chinese and foreign medical circles to prevent and treat cerebral thrombosis, vasculitis, myocardial infarction, blood deficiency and body weakness, irregular menstruation, postpartum blood stasis, generalized pain, traumatic injuries, neurasthenia, palpitations, and mania.

Ways to eat saffron

1. The usual way to eat it is to take 5-8 threads each time and steep them in water to drink; drink for three days and stop for one day, or take it every other day. With 6 to 8 threads of saffron per day, steeped in water and drunk as 3 or 4 cups of water, persistent use for prevention and health care can produce very good beauty and health benefits. With such a small amount used over a long period, its medicinal nature is mild and the effect is quite good, but the key is persistence.

2. Used alone: it can be directly decocted and the juice taken, or saffron can be brewed with boiling water and repeatedly infused 4 times; friends who drink alcohol can soak 4 grams of saffron in 1 jin of liquor for half a month and then take it daily.

3. How to make saffron rice: first wash the rice clean, add 3-5 threads of saffron, 3-5 cardamom pods, and an appropriate amount of water; after cooking, add fried cashews, cheese, salt, and shredded coconut and mix well.

4. For medicinal use, follow the doctor's instructions, so there is no need to say more (the medicinal dosage is generally 3-9 grams).

Recommended ways to eat saffron

1. Saffron tea

How to brew saffron tea: take 5 to 10 threads of saffron, steep them in boiling water and drink; after refilling with water 3 to 5 times, take it together with the threads. Contraindications for using saffron tea: pregnant women, those during menstruation, and patients with bleeding disorders should use it with caution!

2. Saffron wine

Single-ingredient saffron medicinal wine: 3-4 grams of saffron, 1 jin (500 milliliters) of white liquor; after soaking for one week, drink it, 20-30 milliliters daily.

3. Saffron porridge

Method one: 100 grams of rice, 10-20 threads of saffron, add an appropriate amount of water, cook into porridge, once daily. It is suitable for traumatic pain, chronic hepatitis, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, and sequelae of stroke caused by qi stagnation and blood stasis.

Method two: soak 10-20 threads of saffron in boiling water; after 100 grams of rice is brought to a boil, add the saffron water, then cook it into porridge and eat.

4. Saffron rice

In Iran, whether in restaurants or in ordinary homes, the rice always has a layer of yellow rice on top, which has been soaked with saffron water. This saffron rice also adds another Iranian specialty, cashews. The crispness of the cashews, plus the faint delicate fragrance of saffron, makes the rice very tasty.

5. Saffron coconut milk mussel soup

Stir-fry minced small onion and sliced garlic until fragrant, then add black mussels; pour in white wine and then add saffron, until all the mussels have opened, then remove them; add coconut milk to the pot and slowly bring to a boil and reduce, then add cream and bring to a boil, and season appropriately with salt and pepper; put shredded vegetables into a soup bowl, arrange the mussels around it, and garnish with mussels in the shell; pour the soup from the pot into a blender and blend so that the surface of the soup has small bubbles, then pour it into the soup bowl and garnish with cilantro.

6. Saffron cheese

After heating fresh milk for 15 minutes, add 1 spoonful of white vinegar, continue boiling, then let it sit for 15 minutes until it solidifies into curds. Place the curds on a plate, mix with honey, and sprinkle with saffron. Take a large half bowl of milk tea, add tsampa, mix evenly, knead into small balls by hand, and eat with the cheese.

7. Saffron chicken rolls

Soak saffron in warm boiled water for 5 minutes. Mix eggs, flour, and starch evenly, spread in a flat-bottomed pan and cook, making egg wrappers for later use. Mince chicken breast, add a little salt and chicken essence, wrap in the egg wrappers, shape into exquisite forms, and steam over high heat for 20 minutes. Bring the saffron water to a boil, add salt, chicken essence, and starch to make a thin glaze. Pour the bright red glaze over the chicken rolls and serve.

8. Saffron lamb chops

Pressure-cook the young lamb chops until tender, then cut them into uniform pieces; braise the cut lamb chops with saffron juice; arrange the braised lamb chops well and pour over the saffron juice glaze.

9. Saffron baby cabbage

Baby cabbage hearts, saffron, and other ingredients are simmered together; the soup color is bright and the dish is nutritious. Saffron baby cabbage has a bright sauce and rich soup; the orange-red soup is simmered out from saffron.

The effects of saffron

1. Effects on the uterus

The decoction has an excitatory effect on the isolated uterus and uterus in situ of mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Small doses can cause tonic or rhythmic contractions of the uterus, while large doses can increase uterine tension and excitability, enhance the rate of automatic contraction, and even reach the level of spasm; the pregnant uterus is more sensitive. In experiments on rabbit uterine fistula, an excitatory effect also appeared, and after one administration the effect could last as long as 4 hours. The order of potency of its various extracts is: decoction > ethanol extract > volatile components > ether extract. Small doses may also produce inhibition of the uterus, or effects such as inhibition first and then excitation, especially when the ethanol extract is applied to the uterus of non-pregnant rabbits, where inhibition is often seen. The uterine excitatory effect can be partially blocked by ergotamine ethanesulfonate (an adrenergic blocker), while atropine cannot; therefore it is believed that the effect on the uterus is partly a direct effect on uterine muscle cells and partly related to adrenergic receptors.

2. Effects on the circulatory system

The decoction can lower blood pressure in anesthetized dogs and cats and can maintain this for a relatively long time; it also has an excitatory effect on respiration. When blood pressure is lowered, renal volume decreases, indicating contraction of renal blood vessels; it also shows a contractile effect on toad blood vessels. It has a fairly significant inhibitory effect on the isolated toad heart. Some people have explored its use as a drug to pause the heartbeat during surgery and found that the water infusion can cause the heart to stop rapidly and completely in diastole on isolated toad and rat hearts and on acute cat in situ heart preparations, lasting for more than ten minutes, and it is very easy to recover; if used together with acetylcholine, the cardiac arrest is even more rapid and complete. No fibrillation occurs during resumption of beating, and after resumption the cardiac activity is strengthened. However, chemical analysis shows that the component inhibiting the heart is related to potassium salts, which is quite noteworthy, because saffron contains a large amount of potassium salts, and potassium salts can not only inhibit the heart and cause lowered blood pressure, but also have an excitatory effect on the tension and contraction of smooth muscle such as the small intestine, uterus, bronchi, and blood vessels. Therefore, in future pharmacological research on saffron, potassium salts should first be removed.

The price of saffron

Saffron has multiple effects such as promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and promoting menstruation and relieving pain. It is a relatively precious tonic, so its price is generally high. Some premium-grade saffron of relatively good varieties generally costs several hundred yuan per gram. Saffron in ordinary pharmacies is generally 50-80-plus yuan per gram. If it is saffron sold online, the price is generally somewhat lower, usually several dozen yuan per gram, but sellers need to be chosen carefully.

Liqintang Iranian imported saffron, 5g bottle, price: ¥99.00

Guankang saffron, 5 grams, price: ¥98.00

Tongrentang premium saffron, 1000mg, price: ¥59.00

Jinhe Iranian imported saffron, 5 grams, price: ¥88.00

Hancaohui saffron, 1g, price: ¥27.80

Sanjiangyuan saffron, 1g, price: ¥102.00

Zhuangmin saffron, 6 grams, price: ¥399.00