Saffron Pro

What Is Saffron Pro?

Saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus, a crocus that flowers in autumn. Each blossom carries three, and they come off by hand, which is why saffron costs what it does by weight. This extract is standardized to 0.3% safranal.

How It Works in the Body

Saffron's three signature compounds are all fragments of one carotenoid. Crocetin is the core. Dress it in sugars and it becomes crocin, the pigment that turns rice yellow and the reason a carotenoid dissolves in water at all. Picrocrocin carries the bitterness, and safranal, the aroma, forms from it as the stigmas dry.

In the gut the sugars come off the crocins, and crocetin crosses into the blood. Saffron has colored food and cloth, and held a place in traditional practice, for thousands of years.

What It Supports

• A calm, balanced mood: Saffron's traditional use has always centered on mood, and it supports a calm, balanced mood.
• Carotenoid chemistry: Crocin and crocetin belong to the carotenoids, the pigment family that colors carrots, and they support the body's antioxidant defenses.
• A defined extract: Safranal is the marker this extract is standardized against, so a serving is set by chemistry rather than raw stigma weight.
• A kitchen spice first: Saffron is a food before it is a supplement, used in small amounts in Persian, Indian and Spanish cooking.

Who It May Suit

People who want saffron by itself rather than folded into a mood blend, and who prefer a capsule to a tablet. The capsule is hypromellose and the filler is rice flour, so vegetarian and vegan eating are covered.

Good To Know

Saffron is among the most adulterated spices in trade, which is why an extract names its marker compound. Talk with your healthcare provider before use if you are pregnant or nursing, since saffron in amounts beyond culinary ones has a traditional reputation for acting on the uterus, or if you take an antidepressant or a sedative.