Abstract
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) belongs to the Iridaceae family. The stigma of saffron has been widely used as spice, medicinal plant, and food additive in the Mediterranean and Subtropical countries. Recently, attention has been paid to the identification of new sources of safe natural antioxidants for the food industry. The antioxidant activities of spices are mainly attributed to their phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Saffron is one of the spices believed to possess antioxidant properties, but information on its antioxidant activity and phenolic, flavonoids compound are rather limited, therefore this research was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity of saffron stigmas extracted with different solvents. The phenolic and flavonoid compounds of saffron were also examined using reversed phase (RP)-HPLC. Results showed that saffron stigma possess antioxidant activity. The free radical scavenging and ferric reducing power activities were higher for the methanolic extract of saffron stigma at a concentration of 300 μg/mL, with values of 68.2% and 78.9%, respectively, as compared to the corresponding boiling water and ethanolic extracts, but the activities were lower than those of antioxidant standards such as BHT and α-tocopherol. The obtained total phenolics value for methanolic saffron extract was 6.54 ± 0.02 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight (DW), and for total flavonoids, 5.88 ± 0.12 mg rutin equivalent/g DW, which were also higher than values obtained from the ethanolic and boiling water extracts. In addition, the RP-HPLC analyses indicated the presence of gallic acid and pyrogallol as two bioactive compounds. In summary, saffron stigmas showed antioxidant activity and methanol appeared to be the best solvent to extract the active components, among which the presence of gallic acid and pyrogallol might contribute towards the stigma’s antioxidant properties. Hence, saffron stigma could be applied as a natural antioxidant source for industrial purposes.
Highlights
In the human body, oxidant–antioxidant imbalance impairs cell functions and immunity, and promotes cell death and DNA damage, which can cause mutations and contribute towards the development of chronic diseases such as cancer [1,2]
This might be due to the presence of higher total phenolics and flavonoids, which play a major role in reducing power activity
Total phenolic contents results were expressed as milligrams of gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per gram dry weight (DW)
Summary
Oxidant–antioxidant imbalance impairs cell functions and immunity, and promotes cell death and DNA damage, which can cause mutations and contribute towards the development of chronic diseases such as cancer [1,2]. A positive linear correlation among phenolic compounds and flavonoids with antioxidant capacity of spices has been reported [6] Synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) have been widely used for many years to retard lipid oxidation. The antioxidants constitute a range of substances that play a role in protecting biological systems against the deleterious effects of oxidative processes on macromolecules, such as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and DNA [7] Many of those substances are plant-derived natural molecules that contribute to the prevention and treatment of diseases in which reactive oxygen species are involved. The research reported was carried out to evaluate the presence of phenolic and flavonoid compounds by RP-HPLC as well as assessing the antioxidant activity of saffron stigmas as one of the common food spices
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