Crocus sativus L. (C. sativus), known as "plant gold ", has numerous functions in traditional Chinese medicine, including promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, cooling blood, detoxifying, relieving depression, and calming the nerves. Its stigma, the main medicinal part, performs extremely low yield and high price, thus the scarce resources, while its petals, the byproduct, are usually discarded or employed as fertilizer or feed, resulting in huge waste, as the petals have been proved to contain various chem. components covering terpenoids, flavonoids, and glycosides, which exhibits pharmacol. activities of analgesia, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular protection, liver protection, and antidepressant. This paper aims to compare the material basis of the pharmacol. similarities or differences between stigmas and petals, clarify their research status, and evaluate the potential application value of petals. As a byproduct of a precious traditional herbal medicine, the petals of C. sativus have been elucidated in previous studies. This review explores the chem. constituents and pharmacol. effect of stigma and petals of C. sativus, confirming their similar material bases, and the application prospect of petals.