The word saffron originated from the 12th-century old French term Safran, which is derived from the Latin word safaranum. Safaranum is also related to the Italian zafferano and Spanish azafran ( Harper 2001 ). Safranum comes from the Arabic word asfar which means ''yellow''(Kaztzer 2001; Kumar 2006). In Sanskrit, it bears the name of kumkum and kesar.
