Crocin in the stamens of Crocus sativus L.: quantitative analysis
1997
Farah, L.
Saffron is a very high value spice obtained from the dried Crocus sativus stigmas. It is mainly employed to provide colour and flavour to food. Saffron has three main components: The bright yellow colouring (crocin), a bitter taste (picrocrocin) and spicy aroma (safranal). Safranal is the degradation product of picrocrocin. Crocin is the main substance responsible for its uses as a medicine and a flavouring and colouring agent. Until now nothing has been reported about the presence of crocin in the yellow saffron (stamens), though red saffron has been extensively investigated. In the literature it has been mentioned that the stamen do not contain any crocin. This particular study comprises a series of extraction of the yellow saffron (stamens), using solvents of different polarity in order to obtain the methanolic extract. This extract was purified on a Silica gel column and the fractions were run on an analytic HPLC-DA system in order to estimate the fraction that contain the highest amount of crocin.
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