Carthamus tinctorius L. Asteraceae. Safe Flower, False Saffron - Distribution: W. Asia. Dioscorides (in Beck, 2003) notes the seeds as a purgative, but also advises it made up with 30 figs, which must have helped. Gerard (1640) calls it Atractylis flore luteo the yellow distaffe thistle. and follows Dioscorides in its uses, but does get the reader confused with Cnicus benedictus, calling both plants 'wild bastard saffron'. Culpeper makes no mention of it in his early works, but later (1826) have the following: ‘Wild Saffon, or Saf-flower ... accounted a pretty strong cathartic [causing diarrhoea and vomiting], evacuating tough viscid phlegm, both upwards and downwards, and by that means is said to clear the lungs, and help the phthisic [now equated with tuberculosis]. It is likewise serviceable against the jaundice
- Dr Henry Oakeley
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although pretty much out of use.’ Linnaeus (1782) noted its use for asthma, dropsy, icterus and 'Tussus senilis' , which is probably an old cough. Safflower oil is used for cooking
making margarine, and as a substitute for linseed oil in making up paints where the yellow colour of the latter would spoil the paint. Recently transgenic plants have been produced that synthesise human insulin. It is used to produce a dye, and cloth dyed with safflower was found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, dating back to 2,000 BC, including the tomb of King Tutankhamen. The dye is also used in foodstuffs. 600,000 tons a year are produced worldwide for the production of a yellow pigment for margarine. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.