Analysis of environmental condition to improve the development of daughter corm of saffron cultivated by hydroponics and development of non-destructive method to select superior mother corms

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25292151
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Agricultural environmental engineering/Agricultural information engineering
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: ITOH Hiromichi 神戸大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (00258063)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): UNO Yuichi 神戸大学, 大学院農学研究科, 准教授 (90304120) ; KUROKI Shinichiro 神戸大学, 大学院農学研究科, 助教 (00420505)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: サフラン / 子球肥大 / 気温制御 / 遠赤色光 / クロシン / デンプン / 非破壊計測 / 光拡散画像計測

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The final objective of this research is to establish a growth control method to produce high quality saffron. Growth phase of saffron is induced by air temperature. It would be possible for far-red light to improve translocation of carbon assimilation products and to encourage the development of daughter corm. Therefore, the effects of air temperature and far-red light on the development of daughter corm and crocin content in stigmas were clarified.
In order to harvest high quality stigmas, it is necessary to select superior corms, which contain a lot of starch. A non-destructive method to measure the starch content in a corm was developed by an analysis of light scattering image of saffron surface. Though the estimation accuracy of calibration model was not sufficient for practical use, technical problems that should be solved were clarified. It is predicted that the estimation accuracy can be improved and this method would be turned into actual utilization in the future.

Free Research Field

農学、農業工学、農業環境・情報工学