Saffron: Quality Evaluation by Sensory Profile and Gas Chromatography

Abstract

& . o n the valuable stigmafromflowers of Crocus sativus L, valued essentially for delicate flavor har specijic testing methoa3 for physical, chemical, microscopic parameters, in addition to pigments, and bitter principle but not for flavor. m e flavor projle pattern as cob-web diagrams are reported. lke dose-response relationship for saflon flavor (due to the principal f i v o r component, safanal) is established with n = 0.75 for a modified Stevens ' equation. Importance of examination of flavor is highlighted for grading in view of new developments in postharvest technology and synthetic safanal entering the market. The GC peak identijcation of safanul by liquid and headspace GC and GC-MS is demonstrated and conjrmed from bioassay at the exit port by sni' ng.

Saffron, an alternative crop for sustainable agricultural systems. A review

“…In the last two decades, the most common chromatographic method used for the qualitative and even semi-preparative separation and analysis of saffron constituents was thin-layer chromatography (TLC), with silica gel used as the stationary phase and a mixture of highly polar solvents, namely, butanol, acetic acid and water as the mobile phase (Sampathu et al, 1984 detector or, more often, a UV-Vis-DAD (Diode Array Detector) for non-volatile constituents (Caballero-Ortega et al, 2007), and Gas Chromatography (GC), with a mass spectrometer (MS) detector for the volatiles (Roedel and Petrzika, 1991;Narasimhan et al, 1992;Tarantilis and Polissiou, 1997) are the methods of choice, allowing the separation on an analytical level and the identification and quantification of the metabolites of interest. Due to the peculiar characteristics of the molecules belonging to the crocetin esters (high degree of conjugation and a certain rigidity of the terpenoid scaffold) fluorescence can also be used.…”

Changes in saffron volatile profile according to its storage time

“…Numerous papers have been written on saffron volatile content (Alonso, Salinas, Esteban-Infantes, & Sánchez-Fernández, 1996;Alonso, Salinas, & Garijo, 1998;Carmona, Zalacain, Salinas, & Alonso, 2007;Du, Wang, Hu, & Yao, 2008;Kanakis, Daferera, Tarantilis, & Polissiou, 2004;Maggi et al, 2009;Zougagh, Ríos, & Valcárcel, 2006), but few on saffron aroma contribution. In addition, these references are limited by the number of samples collected, a maximum of three (Cadwallader, 2002;Narasimhan, Chand, & Rajalakshmi, 1992;Rödel & Petrzika, 1991). In general, these studies on saffron sensory evaluation remarked that a good aroma quality was given by sweet, floral and spicy notes.…”

Simultaneous Extraction and Rapid HPLC Based Quantification of Crocin and Safranal in Saffron (Crocus Sativus L.)

“…In the recent past, many methods have been used like thin layer chromatography, gas chromatography, near infrared (NIR), etc., for the extraction and quantification of the safranal and crocin from the stigmata of C. sativus [1,[6][7][8]. Some methods are non-specific and unable to adequately separate the exact quality of saffron present in the international market on the basis of metabolites.…”