NMR metabolite profiling of saffron in quality assessment

Saffron is obtained from dried red stigmas of Crocus sativus L. Due to the limited production and the manual harvest, saffron represents the most expensive spice in the world. Among the different producers, Iran is the biggest followed in Asia by India while in Africa and Europe, the major producers are Morocco, and Greece, Spain and Italy respectively. Appreciated for its health benefits saffron is widely used as food ingredient. The typical color, taste, aroma and flavor are due to three secondary metabolites that are crocins, picrocrocin and safranal respectively. The spectrophotometric quantification of these compounds, together with other physicochemical parameters, are used to define the quality and consequently the commercial value of saffron. In this work NMR spectroscopy has been employed to analyzed the metabolic content of saffron. Multivariate statistical analysis protocols applied on 1H NMR data let to evaluate different quality aspects of saffron, such as the possibility to differentiate Italian PDO saffron from the commercial ones [1], to define the period of storage during which saffron can be considered still fresh [2], and to identify possible adulterants [3,4]. Part of these results have been obtained within the frame of COST ACTION FA1101 "SaffronOmics". References [1] L.R. Cagliani, N. Culeddu, M. Chessa, and R. Consonni Food Control 50, 342-348 (2015) [2] S.A. Ordoudi, L.R. Cagliani, S. Lalou, E. Naziri, M.Z. Tsimidou, and R. Consonni, Food Res. Int., 70,1-6 (2015) [3] E.A. Petrakis, L.R. Cagliani, M.G. Polissiou, and R. Consonni Food Chem., 173, 890-896 (2015) [4] E.A. Petrakis, L.R. Cagliani, P. Tarantilis, M.G. Polissiou, and R. Consonni Food Chem., 217, 418-424 (2017)