Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. It's derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus and has a deep auburn colour and sweet flavour. The stigmas can only be picked by hand and it takes 250,000 stigmas to make just half a kilo of saffron, hence its high price. Fortunately, a little saffron goes a long way.

Saffron, contains minerals, mucilage, fat, wax and aromatic Terpenic Essential oil with a ‎few cineol, such as picroretine, picrocrocine and crocine. There are 10 to 16 percent water, 5 to ‎‎7 percent minerals, a few Gloside, 5 to 8 percent fat and wax, 12 to 13 percent protein with a ‎few essential oil that make Saffron more delightful and produces a stronger smell. ‎

Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. A C. sativus flower bears three stigmas, each the distal end of a carpel. Together with the styles — stalks that connect the stigmas to their host plant — the dried stigmas are used in cooking as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron, long the world's most expensive spice by weight, is native to Southwest Asia in particular, Iran and recently from Spain.