More and more saffron has been cultivated in China because of the increasing saffron demand, but no paper has studied the influence of drying methods on the quality of Chinese saffron. In this paper, three different dehydration treatments applied in actual production were evaluated: dehydration with electric oven, vacuum oven, and microwave. We determined that the highest quality of saffron will be obtained when fresh saffron is treated at higher temperatures (no more than 70°C) for a long time by electric oven drying and vacuum oven drying. In microwave drying, treatments at lower microwave power and longer time benefit the quality of saffron. In addition, the influence of the drying method on antioxidants in saffron is discussed. The correlation between individual saffron profiles and the antioxidant value was estimated by spectrum-effect relationships analysis.

Saffron, which has many kinds of biological activities, has been widely used in medicine, cosmetics, food, and other fields of health promotion industries. Crocins are the main component of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). At present, most of the extraction methods for crocins require long time or special instruments to complete the process and some of them are not suitable for industrial production at present. In this article, homogenate extraction technology which is a convenient and efficient method was developed for crocins extraction from saffron. Firstly, the influences of extraction voltage, extraction time, ethanol concentration, and temperature on crocins yield were studied by single factor experiments; and then response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize levels of four variables based on the result of single factor experiments. Results showed that the optimum extraction process conditions for crocins were as follows: extraction voltage, 110 V; ethanol concentration, 70%; extraction temperature, 57 ∘ C; and extraction time, 40 s. Based on these conditions, the extraction yield of crocins can reach 22.76% which is higher than ultrasonic extraction method. Therefore, homogenate extraction is an effective way to extract crocins from saffron with higher extraction yield and shorter extraction time.

Background:Noni juice has been extensively used as folk medicine for the treatment of arthritis, infections, analgesic, colds, cancers, and diabetes by Polynesians for many years. Due to the lack of standard scientific evaluation methods, various kinds of commercial Noni juice with different quality and price were available on the market.Objective:To establish a sensitive, reliable, and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method for separation, identification, and simultaneous quantitative analysis of bioactive constituents in Noni juice.Materials and Methods:The analytes and eight batches of commercially available samples from different origins were separated and analyzed by the HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method on an Agilent ZORBAX SB-C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) column using a gradient elution of acetonitrile-methanol-0.05% glacial acetic acid in water (v/v) at a constant flow rate of 0.5 mL/min.Results:Seven components were identification and all of the assay parameters were within the required limits. Components were within the correlation coefficient values (R2 ≥ 0.9993) at the concentration ranges tested. The precision of the assay method was <0.91% and the repeatability between 1.36% and 3.31%. The accuracy varied from 96.40% to 103.02% and the relative standard deviations of stability were <3.91%. Samples from the same origin showed similar content while different origins showed significant different result.Conclusions:The developed methods would provide a reliable basis and be useful in the establishment of a rational quality control standard of Noni juice.SUMMARY Separation, identification, and simultaneous quantitative analysis method of seven bioactive constituents in Noni juice is originally developed by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometryThe presented method was successfully applied to the quality control of eight batches of commercially available samples of Noni juiceThis method is simple, sensitive, reliable, accurate, and efficient method with strong specificity, good precision, and high recovery rate and provides a reliable basis for quality control of Noni juice. Abbreviations used: HPLC-ESI-MS/MS: High-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry, LOD: Limit of detection, LOQ: Limit of quantitation, S/N: Signal-to-noise ratio, RSD: Relative standard deviations, DP: Declustering potential, CE: Collision energy, MRM: Multiple reaction monitoring, RT: Retention time.

Background:Saffron, which is made up of the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L., has been successfully cultivated in China since 1970s and Zhejiang province is now the largest producing area in China, but the contents of crocetin esters and picrocrocin in saffron from Zhejiang province has not been determined simultaneously by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and changes of these constituents in Chinese saffron during storage for years has not been studied.Object:To establish a simple method quantification of the five main compounds including picrocrocin and four crocetin esters in saffron from main producing areas of China and study the influence of storage time on the changes of saffron constituents.Materials and Methods:A simple, sensitive, and accurate HPLC method was developed for simultaneous determination of five major active components in saffron and eight samples which collected from the same farm of Zhejiang province in different years were analyzed.Results:The correlation coefficient values (R2 > 0.9997) indicated good correlations between the investigated compounds’ concentrations and their peak areas within the test ranges. The limits of quantification and detection of the five compounds were 0.53–2.76 μg/mL and 0.11–0.77 μg/mL, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 94.67% to 101.31%, and the overall relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day were lower than 3.49%. The method was applied to study the changes of crocetin esters and picrocrocin contents in saffron samples during 15 years of storage. The losses of crocetin esters and picrocrocin in saffron with 1 -year storage were 52.2% and 54.3%, respectively. The trend then declined during subsequent storage.Conclusion:The developed method can be applied to the intrinsic quality control of saffron.

Polysaccharide from petals of Crocus sativus (PPCs) was extracted by mechanochemical‐assisted extraction (MCAE) method. The optimization of MCAE conditions was applied by the Response surface methodology. The optimal conditions were as follows: milling for 8.14 min, keeping in the ultrasonic bath at 40 °C with NaOH (0.2 wt %) for 15 min, and the solid/liquid ratio of 1/30 g/mL. Under the conditions, a yield of 28.97% was obtained, which was very consistent with the predicted yield of 29.20%. The decolorization effects of crude PPCs were studied. HPD‐100 resin was selected as the decolorizing resin. The optimized dynamic adsorption condition was flow rate of 5.4 BV/hr, volume of 60 mL, temperature of 20 °C, 5 mg/mL PPCs extract. The ratios of decoloration, deproteinization, and polysaccharide recovery were 86.59, 86.60, and 80.54%, respectively. Then the antiproliferative activity of PPCs was assessed by 3H‐TdR method on human lung carcinoma A549 cell and breast cancer MCF7 cell. Practical applications Mechanochemical‐assisted extraction was applied to extract polysaccharides from petals of Crocus sativus, which was more time‐efficient with fewer solvents than traditional extraction methods. In addition, polysaccharides from petals of Crocus sativus demonstrated a promising antiproliferative property, which means that the byproducts of saffron might be a potential natural drug or health food for human lung carcinoma therapeutics.