The history of saffron cultivation and usage reaches back more than 3,000 years and spans many cultures, continents, and civilisations. Saffron, a spice derived from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus, has remained among the world's most costly substances throughout history. With its bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight metallic notes, saffron has been used as a seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine. Saffron is native to Southwest Asia, but was first cultivated in Greece. The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus is Crocus cartwrightianus. Human cultivators bred C. cartwrightianus specimens by selecting for plants with abnormally long stigmas. Thus, sometime in late Bronze Age Crete, a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, C. sativus, emerged. Saffron was first documented in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. Since then, documentation of saffron's use over a span of 4,000 years in the treatment of some ninety illnesses has been uncovered. Saffron slowly spread throughout much of Eurasia, later reaching parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_saffron

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1565: The Deccan sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire in the Battle of Talikota, ended the last Hindu kingdom in India. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talikota)

1700: The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the Pacific coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records of tsunamis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1700_Cascadia_earthquake)

1788: The British First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed at Sydney Cove just outside present-day Sydney, establishing the first permanent European settlement in Australia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Phillip)

1950: President Rajendra Prasad succeeded Rajaji the last Governor General as the head of state of India and the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian armed forces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_Prasad) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Rajagopalachari)

1983: The hugely popular spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3 was first released. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

The only gold is love,A coin that we have minted from the lightOf others who have cared for us on EarthAnd who have deposited in us the powerThat nerves our nerves to seize the burning stars. -- Philip José Farmer (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer)