ارزیابی انطباق محتوای آپوکارتنوئیدهای کلاله در نمونه های زعفران ایرانی با استانداردهای ملی و بین المللی

Abstract

The production of high-quality stigma is one of the most important strategies in increasing the country's share of the global market of saffron. In order to compare the apocarotenoids content of random samples of Iranian saffron stigma with national and international standards, 25 stigma samples from different regions of Iran that were harvested during November 2023, were prepared. The content of apocarotenoids of stigma was measured during April-August 2024, according to the Iranian national standard (NO. 259-2) and ISO international standard (NO. 3632-2). The results showed that the crocin content in all the samples were higher than the values of 220 and 200 (absorption of 1% aqueous extract at 440 nm) defined for excellent saffron in the national standard and grade I in the ISO standard, respectively. In terms of picrocrocin content, 90% of the samples were in the excellent group (based on the national standard), while 100% of them were in category I, based on the ISO standard. In addition, the safranal content of all samples was between 34-45 (absorption of 1% aqueous solution at 330 nm), and therefore all samples were in the excellent group based on the national standard and in the category I, based on the ISO standard. The results of this research showed the very high quality of Iranian saffron samples based on both national and international standards.