[Research progress on quality evaluation of saffron].

Saffron, a precious spice and a traditional medicinal herb in the international trade market, has attracted much attention about its quality evaluation.Saffron has been successfully cultivated in some areas in China,such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, but few studies were focused on the quality difference between saffron cultivated in China and in foreign countries, which obstructed the entrance of saffron cultivated in China into international trade market. The paper is to review the current research progress on quality evaluation of saffron from the following respects： the chemical composition, the identification of authenticity and adulterants, the detection of artificial colorants, the indexes and methods of quality evaluation,the quality evaluation of different specifications in the international trade market, and the parameters which affected the quality of saffron.