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Carotenoids are a class of more than 600 secondary metabolites occurring in plants,algae, and photosynthetic bacteria; their flat, long C40 system of alternating double andsingle bonds allow them to be the sources of the yellow, orange, and red colours of manyplants, including fruit and vegetables, where they are believed to contribute to the overa...
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... main reason for this change is certainly due to the high requirement of manual labour, concentrated over a few days and in only some hours a day, and to the increase in labour costs. Today, the main producer countries are Iran, India and Greece (Table 1). Iran has the widest extension cultivated with saffron: Ehsanzadeh et al., (2004) report an area of 47,000 ha, most of which is grown in the Khorasan province. ...
Citations
... In the Middle East area, saffron, which is derived from the vivid flower's stigmata of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.), was sometimes used as a direct dye, i.e., unmordanted, (Siracusa et al., 2011), and other times with a mordant, during the Classical times (Bahrami et al., 2020). The main constituent in saffron are the four trans polyunsaturated dicarboxylic crocin isomers (Han et al., 2017). ...
... Among the biologically active chemical compounds identified in various C. sativus organs, the antidepressant effects have mainly been ascribed to safranal, crocin, crocetin, and picrocrocin [216,[292][293][294][295][296]. The structural formulas of these phytochemicals are shown in Figure 1. ...
Psychotropic effect of Crocus sativus L. (family Iridaceae) biologically active chemical compounds are quite well documented and they can therefore be used in addition to the conventional pharmacological treatment of depression. This systematic review on antidepressant compounds in saffron crocus and their mechanisms of action and side effects is based on publications released between 1995–2022 and data indexed in 15 databases under the following search terms: antidepressant effect, central nervous system, Crocus sativus, cognitive impairement, crocin, crocetin, depression, dopamine, dopaminergic and serotonergic systems, picrocrocin, phytotherapy, neurotransmitters, safranal, saffron, serotonin, and biologically active compounds. The comparative analysis of the publications was based on 414 original research papers. The investigated literature indicates the effectiveness and safety of aqueous and alcoholic extracts and biologically active chemical compounds (alkaloids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoid, phenolic, saponins, and terpenoids) isolated from various organs (corms, leaves, flower petal, and stigmas) in adjuvant treatment of depression and anxiety. Monoamine reuptake inhibition, N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonism, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-α agonism are the main proposed mechanism of the antidepressant action. The antidepressant and neuroprotective effect of extract components is associated with their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity. The mechanism of their action, interactions with conventional drugs and other herbal preparations and the safety of use are not fully understood; therefore, further detailed research in this field is necessary. The presented results regarding the application of C. sativus in phytotherapy are promising in terms of the use of herbal preparations to support the treatment of depression. This is particularly important given the steady increase in the incidence of this disease worldwide and social effects.
... Crocetin esters (apocarotenoids) were mainly detected in the stigma of saffron and many different crocetin esters were tentatively identified. The predominant crocins present in saffron are trans-4GG and trans-3Gg (Siracusa et al. 2011). Concentration values of the crocetin esters, picrocrocin, and safranal are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Intact crocin is responsible for the red color of saffron. ...
Saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, is comprised of the dried and dark red stigma of Crocus sativus L. flowers of the Iridaceae family. It is mainly used as a spice for imparting color, fragrance, and flavor to food but its medicinal and dyeing properties were also well known. In the USA, saffron products are used as dietary supplements for mood elevation, relaxation, weight loss, and to increase metabolism. The paper describes two analytical methods for the determination of crocetin esters, picrocrocin, safranal in saffron samples, and dietary supplements for inclusion in a monograph under development by the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Method validation showed satisfactory results in linearity, precision, and recovery. The content of picrocrocin, safranal, and crocetin esters ranged from 0.6–10.2%, 0.02–0.22%, and 2.8–25.6%, respectively, for thirty-seven stigma samples. Twenty-nine dietary supplements were analyzed. No saffron compounds were found in 16 (55%) of these products. Flower of Carthamus tinctorius and fruit of Gardenia jasminoides were the main adulterants detected in dietary supplements. Summarily, 60 compounds, including five standards were tentatively identified from saffron stigma, style, and petal samples using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Principle component analysis was used to discriminate between saffron stigma samples and dietary supplements. The results indicated that commercial products are of variable quality and the analytical method is suitable for quality assessment of a variety of both raw materials and finished dietary supplements.
... The obtained results could be attributed to the presence of crocetin esters, also known as crocins, a group of water-soluble carotenoids responsible for saffron's color strength [23,28,56]. Crocetin is formed from crocins during storage time [57]. Due to the fact crocetin is fat-soluble, it could cause the yellowness to increase in dry-cured ham slices [58]. ...
This study determined the effect of adding three concentrations of saffron (A: high, B: medium, and C: low) on vacuum-packaged dry-cured ham slices. The pH and the color coordinates were assessed at 0, 7, 14, 28 and 60 days of storage, and sensorial quality (visual appearance, odor and flavor) and safranal content were analyzed at 7, 14, 28 and 60 days. Saffron concentration did not significantly affect the pH or color (except in a* (redness) and b* (yellowness) at day 28; p < 0.001). Storage period affected pH values (p < 0.001) in all groups with a significant decline from day 28 (p < 0.05); the color coordinates showed a high stability (only L* (lightness) varied in the C group samples; p < 0.01). Sensorial quality did not vary with the time in any group. Significant differences were found among groups in visual appearance (p < 0.05) and flavor (p < 0.001) at day 14 and in odor at day 14, 28, and 60. In general, the C group samples obtained the highest scores. Safranal content varied significantly with the time in a different way in each group, with differences among groups at day 14 and 60 (p < 0.001).
... The composition of stigmas, concerning the secondary metabolites, includes a major group of glycosylated apocarotenoids, named crocins, which are responsible for the dark red color of stigmas. The respective carotenoid aglycone of crocins is the C20 dicarboxylic acid crocetin (8,8′-diapocarotene-8,8′-dioic acid), and all of them are water soluble components [184]. The C20 apocarotenoids of saffron could be distinguished to the all-trans members, including crocins and crocetin, and the 13-cis members, which are exclusively crocins (Figure 1b). ...
... The C20 apocarotenoids of saffron could be distinguished to the all-trans members, including crocins and crocetin, and the 13-cis members, which are exclusively crocins (Figure 1b). However, the typical composition of the water-soluble apocarotenoids of saffron include two major all-trans compounds, namely trans-crocetin di-(β-D-gentiobiosyl) ester and trans-crocetin (β-D-gentiobiosyl)-(β-D-glucosyl) ester, followed by the minor ciscrocetin (β-D-gentiobiosyl)-(β-D-glucosyl) ester, while all of the other, approximately 13 components occurring in water extracts of saffron, appear as even minor components or traces, including crocetin [184,185]. ...
... Synthesizing the two systems, trans-crocetin di-(β-D-gentiobiosyl) ester should be abbreviated as trans-crocin-4-GG or trans-4-GG crocetin ester, however the versions of transcrocin-4 or trans-crocin 4 are mainly detected in the literature, assuming that the glycosylation pattern of the compound is generally taken for granted. Other types of abbreviations such as the one of Siracusa et al. [184] are used in a far lesser extent in the literature. Crocins are coded as crocin-n, where n is, assumingly, an indication of the abundance of the respective compound. ...
Rosemary, oregano, pink savory, lemon balm, St. John’s wort, and saffron are common herbs wildly grown and easily cultivated in many countries. All of them are rich in antioxidant compounds that exhibit several biological and health activities. They are commercialized as spices, traditional medicines, or raw materials for the production of essential oils. The whole herbs or the residues of their current use are potential sources for the recovery of natural antioxidant extracts. Finding effective and feasible extraction and purification methods is a major challenge for the industrial production of natural antioxidant extracts. In this respect, the present paper is an extensive literature review of the solvents and extraction methods that have been tested on these herbs. Green solvents and novel extraction methods that can be easily scaled up for industrial application are critically discussed.
... New glycosides have recently been discovered, which implies that picrocrocin is not the sole glycosidic aroma precursor in saffron. It should be noted that the saffron essential oil tends to absorb oxygen and become thick and brown, and therefore it is not in the market (Siracusa, Gresta, & Ruberto, 2011). ...
... There are also nonvolatile components such as flavonoids and all glycosidic derivatives of kaempferol. Saffron flavonoids have recently been used as chemotaxonomic markers to locate the origin of saffron, as they vary with environmental conditions (Siracusa et al., 2011). However, besides stigmas, other parts of the plant recently attracted the attention of the researchers, as recent studies have proved their antioxidant potential (Lahmass et al., 2018). ...
... The characteristic compound that gives bitter-taste of saffron is picrocrocin (monoterpene glycoside precursor of safranal and product of zeaxanthin degradation). Safranal is a monoterpene aldehyde, which gives its distinctive aroma, whereas crocin (carotenoid, diester of crocetin) and crocetin (natural carotenoid dicarboxylic acid precursor of crocin) are responsible for saffron's yellowish color (Anastasaki et al., 2010;Mykhailenko, Kovalyov, Goryacha, Ivanauskas, & Georgiyants, 2019;Shahi, Assadpour, & Jafari, 2016;Siracusa et al., 2011). The biological features of the spice are also determined by this particular biomolecular pattern. ...
Crocus sativus is a plant from Iridaceae family that blooms in the autumn and does not grow in the wild. The plant is mostly cultivated because of red flower stigmas that after drying make the highly valued saffron spice with the unique organoleptic attributes, also named as “red gold.” As the synthetic antioxidants became a matter of safety concern for usage in the food industry, the attention of scientists was drawn to further exploration of the antioxidant power and health benefits of antioxidants from herbs and spices. The chemical composition of stigmas, related to primary and secondary metabolites, make saffron a rich source of distinct bioactive compounds with pronounced antioxidant properties. Among them, crocin, crocetin, picrocrocin, and safranal are the most important ones that contribute to sensory properties of saffron. Literature data suggest that stigmas (saffron spice) posses a great antioxidant potential expressed through in vitro and in vivo assays. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of studies showing that saffron processing waste and plant “specific parts” may be a rich source of bioactive compounds with significant antioxidant activity. The significance of valorization of the waste material originated from the saffron crop is especially relevant in the terms of the agri-food sector and environmental pollution reduction.
... It is traditionally used in foods as a coloring and flavoring agent due to its unique color, taste, and aroma (Gresta et al., 2008b;Melnyk et al., 2010). Nowadays, saffron is also extensively used for medicinal purposes because of the phytochemical composition of its stigmas (Melnyk et al., 2010;Siracusa et al., 2011). Considering the biological and agricultural features of saffron such as flowering in autumn, adaptability to harsh environmental conditions and low water-requirement, this valuable plant is introduced in low-input and low-rainfall farming systems (Gresta et al., 2008b;Negbi, 1999). ...
A three-year field study was conducted to examine the variation in agronomic performance, apo-carotenoids content, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of saffron corms originating from nine different regions of Iran. Significant differences were observed in flower-related traits, corm characteristics, picrocrocin and safranal contents, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and radical-scavenging activity between saffron corms of different provenance. The largest differences were observed for the flower-related traits and corm properties. Hierarchical classification of the saffron corms of different provenance resulted in three main groups. One of the three groups (provenance: Ferdows, Sarayan, and Bajestan) had high underground and above ground yield potential and also produced significantly higher picrocrocin and TFC in comparison to the other groups. In contrary the group comprising corms from Zarand, Torbat, Natanz, and Estahban were characterized by the lowest agronomic performance, TFC as well as lowest antioxidant activity. The third group, consisting of corms from Gonabad and Qaen, represented medium levels of agronomic-related traits, and the highest TPC and antioxidant ability. These results were further explored and confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA). PCA revealed positive relationships between corm properties on the one hand and flower number and stigma yield on the other hand. No relation between agronomic related traits and quality features was observed. Furthermore, the results indicated a positive relationship between total flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity of saffron. These results can be used for the improvement of the yield and quality as well as in programs for selection of the most suitable corms for particular production locations.
... chemical weed control are usually not applied in growing areas (Siracusa et al., 2011). ...
... Saffron quality greatly depends on the variety, growing conditions and nutritional status (Lage and Cantrell, 2009;Gresta et al., 2009;Siracusa et al., 2011;Rezaian and Paseban, 2006;Rabani-Foroutagheh et al., 2013). The average values for picrocrocin, safranal, and crocin were in the range of 68-93, 39-45, and 217-219 (category I), respectively (Table 4). ...
p> Saffron as one of the most precious spices and medicinal plants, is highly valued for its bioactive compounds. Quantity and quality in spices and medicinal plants can be improved by the plant nutrition. In this field study the sole and integrated application of various fertilizers types and arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungus (AM), Glomus mosseae with respect to the flower-related traits, corm properties, quality, bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of saffron at Kerman region, Iran was examined over a three years period. The fertilizer treatments comprised control (non-amended soil); 20 Mg ha <sup>−1</sup> compost; 10 Mg ha <sup>−1</sup> compost+ 8 Mg ha <sup>−1</sup> biochar and chemical fertilizers. In each fertilizer treatment, planting bed was inoculated or non-inoculated with AM. The results showed that during the first flowering period (2015–16), neither AM nor fertilizer types affected flowering. Inoculation with AM particularly in the application of fertilizer treatments through positive effects on different corm properties during the vegetative growing seasons of 2015–16 and 2017–18, improved flower-related traits in the next flowering periods of 2016–17 and 2017–18. Picrocrocin and safranal content as well as total phenolic content and total flavonoid content in tepals were considerably enhanced by organic amendments and chemical fertilizers compared with the control. While the total phenolic content in stigmata was reduced by AM-inoculation, the total flavonoid content and antioxidant activity of stigmata and tepals were not significantly influenced. Principal Component Analysis clearly discriminated the integrated nutritional treatments from the sole ones based on flower-related traits and corm properties which were positively related with integrated treatments. Organic amendments were characterized by a higher total phenolic content and antioxidant activity in stigmata. Chemical fertilizers alone or in AM-inoculation associated with quality attributes and total flavonoid content in tepals. Research findings confirmed that the integrated application of mycorrhizal fungus, organic, and chemical fertilizers significantly influences the overall production of saffron. </p
... From a qualitative point of view, the compounds present in these samples are quite similar to those of the much better known species of this genus, namely saffron, C. sativus (Carmona et al., 2007;Siracusa et al., 2011). ...
... The intensive hand labour required for daily flower picking and separation of stigmas has led to a strong decrease of its cultivated area in Europe during the last 40 years (Gresta et al., 2008b). Nowadays it is almost exclusively used as spice for cooking purposes due to its unique aromatic profile (Siracusa et al., 2011;Carmona et al., 2006). ...
In a trial carried out in 2004 in inner Sicily (southern Italy), we explored saffron plants to find a relation between flowering peaks and meteorological data.
Temperature and rainfall of the experimental site were recorded throughout the experimental period, as well as daily flower number and total stigma weight.
Flowering lasted 24 days from November 2 to 25. Two main production peaks were detected. In both cases, this synchrony in flowering was achieved just after a considerable decrease of the minimum temperature that reached values lower than 5°C. Interesting relations between daily flowering peaks and temperature trend have
been hypothesized.
