Chemical processing of raw florets of dyer's saffron and successful extraction of a resulting product (carthamin): an approach to improve conventional methods

Abstract

Efficacy of KMnO<sub>4</sub> on processing red florets of dyer's saffron was examined in the presence of micromolar concentrations of the metal salts. Apparent value for KMnO<sub>4</sub> determined by double-reciprocal plots was 126 µM, whose value corresponds to a 1/154-fold of dried florets. Successful extraction of red carthamin was performed by using the processed matters with various solvent systems. HCl/NaOH, acetic acid/ammonia water and pyridine/methanol were found to be effective. For purification of carthamin, the cellulose adsorption technique was very promising. The data are assessed to standarize the new technique.