Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

226 S. A. Ordoudi and M. Z. Tsimidou
selective and accurate as the chromatographic one because other compounds absorb
at 330 nm (Tarantilis et al., 1994b, 1995; Orfanou and Tsimidou, 1996). Zarghami
and Heinz (1971) were the first to investigate the chemical composition of the essential
oil using a gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer. The HPLC and
GC conditions of analysis are tabulated in Tables 3 and 4.
Different modes for sample injection have been used. The chromatographic peaks
are identified using spectroscopic data from MS, IR or NMR spectra libraries
(Zarghami and Heinz, 1971; Petrzika and Roedel, 1991; Tarantilis and Polissiou,
1997; Straubinger et al., 1998; Lozano et al., 1999, 2000; Alonso et al., 2001b).
The major fragments of safranal (C 10H 14O) as identified by MS spectra were the
following: m/z (%) 107 (100), 91 (69), 121 (66), 150 (59), 79 (21), 65 (13), 135
(12) (Tarantilis and Polissiou, 1997). Lozano et al., 2000) after using a different
extraction procedure, did not detect the ion with m/z: 135, while they matched the
molecular ion of safranal with the fragment having m/z: 91. Concerning the
IR spectrum of safranal there have been reported absorptions at 2830, 2720 and
1720 cm –1 which indicate the presence of an unconjucated aldehyde moiety in the
molecule (Zarghami and Heinz, 1971).
2.6. Constituents of other C. sativus plant organs
Except for the chemistry of dried saffron, several investigators have studied the
chemical composition of different organs of C. sativus. Various flavonoids have
been identified in the flowers, tepals and leaves of many Crocus species (Poldini
et al., 1979; Harborne and Williams, 1984; Kubo and Kinst-Hori, 1999). Kaempferol,
astragalin, helichrysoside, kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-β-D-6acetylglucopyranoside
and kaempferol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-β-Dglucopyranoside
myricetin, petunidin, and delphinidin-3,5-diglycoside have been
reported in pollen, petals and tepals of C. sativus (Garrido et al., 1987; Song,
1990; Ríos et al., 1996).
Gao et al. (1999) reported on the isolation and characterisation of some phenolic
glycosides and a γ-lactone glucoside from the sprouts of the plant. The compounds
found were elucidated as 2,4-dihydroxy-6-methoxyacetophenone-2-β-D-glucopyranoside,
2,3,4-trihydroxy-6-methoxy-acetophenone-3-β-D-glucopyranoside and
3-(S)-3-β-D-glucopyranosylbutanolide. Escribano et al. (1999a) isolated a proteoglucan
of 30 kDa from corms of C. sativus. The polysaccharide part of the
molecule was found to contain 36.4% rhamnose, while the protein backbone is
composed by aspartic acid/asparagine, alanine, glutamic acid/glutamine, glycine and
serine, which make up the 60% of the total amino acids.
3. SAFFRON QUALITY. TRADE STANDARDS AND OTHER CRITERIA
Herbs, spices and their derivatives are used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic
industry. Their trade obeys certain rules set either by the relevant legislators or
by trade organisations and other interesting parties. The last decade harmonisation
of international legislation facilitated the quality control of these precious products