Nuove prospettive per lo Zafferano dell’Etna, dalla tavola alle applicazioni cosmetiche e nutraceutiche

The Project plans to optimize the cultivation of saffron, also through micropropagation practices of the varieties that are best suited to the Etna area; enhancing bioactive molecules through testing their usability in cosmetic and nutraceutical applications. It also provides for the recovery of the residue of bioactive molecules from waste biomass, in particular flowers, to verify their use in cosmetic and nutraceutical applications through specific extraction techniques.

The worldwide market forecasts see the use of saffron in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic fields grow in the next 7/8 years: the diversification of the use of the saffron product could concretely constitute a new opportunity for Etnean farms, concentrated for now in the sale of the product for mainly food purposes.

The innovation consists of the application of consolidated knowledge on saffron for commercial purposes other than food, also enhancing the currently waste biomass, setting the conditions for a new business model for producing farms.

The scientific literature, both continental and Asian, confirm the nutraceutical, parapharmaceutical and pharmaceutical properties of saffron: while, as mentioned above, market trends show that one third of the spice's near future turnover will be in the pharmaceutical / cosmetic / nutraceutical sector, in our country the commercial outlet remains mainly food: The project articulates various coordinated activities such as cultivation in the field and greenhouse of saffron in the Etna area, identification of the variety with the highest yield of bioactive molecules, micropropagation to multiply the bulbs of the variety (s) identify and decrease future plant costs, identification of the bioactive molecules that best lend themselves to nutraceutical and cosmetic applications with relative extraction processes, not only from pistils, but also from waste biomass (flowers), market analysis and definition of a business model i gliorativo for farms.