نشریه زراعت و فناوری زعفران
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 35، بهار 1401)

In order to investigate the effect of salinity levels, bio fertilizer and nano fertilizer of Fe on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of saffron, a factorial experiment was conducted as a combined analysis in location by a randomized complete block design with three replications. Bio fertilizer was applied at four levels of zero, 500, 1000 and 1500 kg ha-1 and nanoparticles of Fe was applied at two levels of non-consumption and application of four liters per hectare. These factors were investigated in two locations with different irrigation salinity (2.29 and 4.49 dS m-1). The results showed that there were the highest values for traits of weight of flower, number of flowers, dry weight of stigma and weight of stigma + style in irrigation conditions with a salinity of 2.29 dS m-1. In the mentioned traits, under the conditions of irrigation with salinity of 2.29 dS m-1, there was no significant difference between the application and non-application levels of nano fertilizer of Fe; However, in the conditions of irrigation with salinity of 4.49 dS m-1, the application of nano fertilizer of Fe compared to non-application, caused a significant increase of 35.5, 33, 32.8 and 34.1% of these traits, respectively. Comparison of mean for triple interaction showed that at both salinity levels of 2.29 and 4.49 dS m-1, in the absence of bio fertilizer, the application of nano fertilizer of Fe could significantly increase the amount of crocin. However, in the application of different levels of bio fertilizer, the application of nano fertilizer of Fe reduced significantly the amount of crocin. The highest amount of safranal was observed in salinity of 4.49 dS m-1 and in the treatments of application of 500 and 1500 kg per hectare of bio fertilizer and application of nano fertilizer of Fe as well as non-application of bio fertilizers and nanoparticles of Fe. Irrigation with salinity of 4.49 dS m-1 in bio fertilizer levels (except for 500 kg ha-1) caused a significant increase in picrocrocin. In generally, it seems that for achieving higher yields, irrigation with less saline water and in case of irrigation with water by more than salinity of 4.2 dS m-1, the use of nano fertilizer of Fe to moderate the effects of salinity is recommended.

In order to investigate the effect of chicken manure and chemical fertilizers on some morphological characteristics and yield flowers and replacement corms of saffron under irrigation regimes, a split plot experiment on the basis of complete randomized block design was conducted at the shahrekord and two consecutive crop years (2018-2019 and 2019-2020) with three replications. Irrigation as main plot at three levels (Fc (0% moisture depletion), %33 moisture depletion and %66 moisture depletion) and nutrition as sub-plot at six levels (control (without fertilizer application), 100% recommended chemical fertilizer, 100% recommended chicken manure, 25% chemical fertilizer + 75% chicken manure, 50% chemical fertilizer + 50% chicken manure and 75% chemical fertilizer + 25% chicken manure) were used. Chicken manure at a rate of 3 tons per hectare and chemical fertilizers including: urea 100 kg, potassium sulfate 150 kg, triple superphosphate 50 kg, iron sulfate 45 kg, zinc sulfate 15 kg and manganese sulfate 20 kg, all per hectare based on soil decomposition and the plant needs, were used. Also, the morphological traits and production of flowers and replacement corms was evaluated. The results showed that the interaction effect of year × irrigation × nutrition on all studied traits except leaf number, leaf length and replacement corm diameter was significant at 1% level. The mean comparison compound of the interaction of year × irrigation × nutrition showed that the highest dry yield of stigma and style in the second year, under %33 moisture depletion and 75% chicken manure + 25% chemical fertilizer treatment at the rate of 9.21 kg /ha and the lowest amount In the first year, %66 moisture depletion and control was obtained at the rate of 3.3 kg / ha. With increasing water stress intensity, the effect of 75% chicken manure + 25% chemical fertilizers treatment on the yield of replacement corm increased compared to the control and the effect of this treatment in the second year was more compared to the first year, so that in the first year and field capacity (%0 moisture depletion), increasing yield of replacement corm in this treatment compared to the control was 3.2%, in %33 moisture depletion 11.8% and in %66 moisture depletion, 26.7% , and in the second years, was respectively 11.2%, 15.5% and 38.9%. Therefore, this treatment had the highest effect on increasing the yield of saffron stigma and style in all irrigation regimes in this experiment.

Crocus sativus is a triploide plant and propagating by vegetative propagation. Therefore, trait segregation and genetic diversity are limited in this plant. EST-SSR markers have some priority, for example co-dominant inheritance, locus specific and highly polymorphic against all other markers. Due to the availability of transcriptome data, it is possible to develop EST-SSR markers and polymorphism studies in saffron. Development of EST-SSR markers in C. sativus make it possible to study genetic diversity and molecular polymorphism in different genotypes. In order to develop EST-SSR marker for C. sativus, we downloaded public available C. sativus RNA-seq data. Quality control and preprocessing of raw reads were done using FastQC and Trimmomatic tools, respectively. We performed de novo transcriptome assembly using RNA-Bloom. CD-HIT-EST was used in order to reduce redundancy in transcriptome assembly. The assembly quality was evaluated using the BUSCO software and completeness of transcriptome assembly was 90%. After achieving to high quality transcriptome assembly of C. sativus, EST-SSRs were identified by MISA tool. The EST-SSRs primers were designed using Primer3. 35459 SSR-containing sequences were detected and primer pairs were designed for them. Ten EST-SSR primer pairs were randomly selected to amplify C. sativus DNA. Seven pairs of the primers (70%) generated clear and reproducible bands with the expected size. These EST-SSR markers can be functional and useful for C. sativus genetic studies.

Saffron petals are known as one of the richest sources of anthocyanin. Considering the significant production statistics of this plant and high consumption of anthocyanin as an authorized food color in Iran, its industrial extraction can be worthy to be considered. In this study, with an industrial approach (determination of parameters considering industrial extraction), conditions for extracting monomeric anthocyanin from saffron petals using a single solvent of citric acid have been investigated, for the first time. Among the reasons for this choice to replace other solvents studied in previous studies, we can mention the availability and allowability of this substance in the food industry. The variables of solvent to dry plant tissue ratio in the range of 10 to 60 ml/g, extraction temperature in the range of 25 to 35 °C, solvent concentration percentage in the range of 5 to 20 and extraction time of 2 to 120 minutes were considered for this experiment. After obtaining the most appropriate model to the laboratory data output, using the surface-response method, extraction conditions were optimized in order to achieve the highest amount of extracted anthocyanin. According to the obtained coefficients, ratio of solvent to dry petals was recognized as the most significant extraction variable. Solvent ratio to dry petals of 10 ml/g, solvent concentration percentage of 5.04, extraction temperature of 25 °C and extraction time of 179.555 minutes were determined as the optimal extraction conditions. Extraction time of up to 180 minutes was considered to optimize. Model predicted the amount of extracted anthocyanin in the optimal conditions was 688.944 mg/l.

Export efficiency is the difference between actual exports and potential exports of exporting countries in destination markets, which nowadays measuring the efficiency has considerable importance in terms of export development and their competitiveness analysis. The export of saffron, as the most valuable agricultural product in the world, is of great importance to Iran, which has decreased in recent years. Therefore, its various dimensions need to be analyzed and evaluated. Due to the lack of a study on the efficiency of saffron exports, this study attempts to measure the export efficiency of Iran in 14 major saffron importers, which accounted for more than 90% of imports. To calculate the efficiency, the data of Iranian saffron exports to destination markets in the period of 2001-2017 have been estimated using a stochastic frontier gravity model. Efficiency results indicated that the efficiency of Iranian saffron exports in 2017 is equal to 0.45. The country analysis shows that Iran has the highest efficiency in Spain (0.93) and the United Arab Emirates (0.87), respectively, and has the lowest efficiency in Japan (0.07) and the United Kingdom (0.13), respectively. According to the results, the efficiency of exports in Asian markets has increased from 0.31 in 2001 to 0.41 in 2017. Considering the positive effect of the Asian regional variable and the negative role of geographical distance on Iranian saffron exports and also the change of the global network of saffron imports from Europe to Asia, it is suggested that Asian markets, which have higher competitive advantages for Iran, be considered by policymakers for saffron exports.

Given the dynamic nature of saffron exports in the country, the analysis of export growth of this product based on the difference between export values ​​between two specific times, does not give a proper understanding of the stability of trade relations between Iran and exporting partners. Considering the importance of saffron exports, this study investigates the export relations of this product during the period 1997-2018 using the Kaplan Meyer survival function and estimating the semi-parametric Cox model. The results of Kaplan Meyer's analysis showed that only 20% of saffron export relations remained until the end of the period under review. Estimates obtained from the Cox model also showed that factors such as higher production, longer trade relations, and higher GDP of countries, decreased the risk of losing an export relationship by 0.006%, 0.33%, and 0.007%, respectively. Also, exports to Asian countries have a lower risk of loss than other countries. Given these results, boosting exports to trading partners with larger economies, and establishing marketing networks and product supply chains which ensures a more coordinated and sustainable supply of the product is important and recommended.