Quantification of Afghan Saffron’s Moisture and Main Compounds (Crocin, Picrocrocin and Safranal) for Quality Evaluation

Raihana Halim; Najia Sherzay; Nazifa Faqeryar; M. Homayoun Hashimi

doi:10.52460/src.2022.003

Authors

Raihana Halim Kabul University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2297-9489
Najia Sherzay Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kabul University
Nazifa Faqeryar Avignon University, INRAE, UMR408, GREEN Extraction Team, 84000, Avignon, France
M. Homayoun Hashimi Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52460/src.2022.003

Keywords:

Afghans saffron, moisture, bioactive compounds, ISO 3232-2

Abstract

Saffron, the stigma of the plant Crocus sativus L., has specific testing methods for physical, chemical and microscopic parameters. In this study, the saffron main components have been described, and quality parameters of saffron from many countries have been analyzed for determining the quality of saffron. Although saffron from Afghanistan is of high quality, it is still unknown to the world. This research is aimed to perform quality control of Afghan Saffron. Some characteristics of Afghan saffron were analyzed compared to ISO 3632-2 test methods. The results of moisture analysis (5.12 to 5.74%) and determination of crocin (230.52-255.15) of Afghan saffron were at the range of standard as described for category I of saffron in ISO 3632-2 test methods. However, the results of some samples for safranal and picrocrocin (38.52-40.21 for safranal and 68.86-72.63 for picrocrocin) were higher than the range of category I of ISO 3632-2.