Saffron Agronomy and Technology

Abstract Saffron is one of the most popular traditional herbs and the most expensive spice globally. Global production of saffron is estimated at 418 tons per year on 121,338 hectares. This spice is beneficial for human health because it has three main bioactive compounds: crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal. In recent years, in addition to numerous studies on various medicinal effects due to the decrease in its production, research on factors affecting saffron production has increased. Consequently, conducting a bibliometric analysis of publications can provide insights into current areas of interest and potential trends for future research. The purpose of this research is to reveal the research topics of the saffron field in the WoS database during the period from 2000 to 2023, which was done with the benefit of scientometric techniques. The current research community includes 3936 articles. Data analysis and drawing of the intellectual structure of knowledge was also done using R Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. Acta Horticulturae was the most popular journal for saffron research, with 216 published articles, while the American Chemical Society's Chemistry journal was the most cited. The scientometric analysis identified the most productive countries, and Iran was at the top with 1015 single-country publications (SCP), 155 multi-country publications (MCP) and the highest frequency of 0.297. According to the current research, the research topics related to saffron that have recently become more advanced and can be used as a basis for the authors' research include antioxidants, double-blind testing (medical), oxidative stress, inflammation, type 2 diabetes, major depressive disorder, alpha-amylase, are fatty acids. This study highlights the link between collaborations and scientific developments and trends in scientific collaboration and serves as a model to show emerging research directions in the field of saffron.