Comparison of phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activities of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of saffron

• Published in: Quality assurance and safety of crops & food Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 521 - 529
• Main Authors: Rahaiee, S, Hashemi, M, Moini, S, Shojaosadati, S. Abbas, Razavi, S. H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brisbane Wageningen Academic Publishers 01.04.2015; Codon Publications
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Flavonoids; Phytochemicals; Research-Article; phytochemical compounds; saffron; extraction; antioxidant behaviour
• ISSN: 1757-8361; 1757-837X
• DOI: 10.3920/QAS2013.0376

In the present work, phytochemical compounds and antioxidant activities of three aqueous, ethanolic (50 and 80%, v/v) and methanolic (50 and 80%, v/v) extracts of saffron during 1 and 24 h of shaking time were compared. Results showed that the ethanolic solution (80%, v/v) extracted for 24 h had the highest amounts of phenolic compounds (29.2 g gallic acid (Gal)/g dry weight (DW)), followed by 1 h aqueous extract (17.53 mg Gal/g DW) and 1 h methanol extract (50%, v/v, 14.5 mg Gal/g DW). The total flavonoid contents for all extracts were varied from 0.20 to 0.56 mg quercetin/g DW. Although all the extracts were capable to scavenge the 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free-radical, ethanolic extract was found to be the best antioxidant activity (84.22%). Solvent type and extraction time had significant effects on the antioxidant capacities and phytochemical contents of the saffron extracts. A significant positive correlation was found between the antioxidant activity, total phenolic (r2=0.991) and flavonoid (r2=0.996) contents (P<0.05) for 24 h the extracted extracts. High performance liquid chromatography analysis also demonstrated that the components amounts of crocins, picrocrocin and safranal were varied in the saffron samples extracted from the different solvents.