Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Research International

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodres

Changes in saffron volatile prole according to its storage time

Luana Maggi a, Manuel Carmona a, Amaya Zalacain a, Charalabos D. Kanakis b, Eirini Anastasaki b,
Petros A. Tarantilis b, Moschos G. Polissiou b, Gonzalo L. Alonso a,*
a
Ctedra de Qumica Agrcola, ETSI Agrnomos, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Campus Universitario, 02071 Albacete, Spain
b
Laboratory of Chemistry, Department of Science, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 118 55 Athens, Greece

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Seventy-three saffron samples belonging to three different storage time (<1 year, 34 and 89 years)
Received 25 November 2009 were analysed using ultrasound assisted extraction-gas chromatographymass spectrometry and ultra-
Accepted 23 March 2010 sound assisted extraction-gas chromatographyolfactometry. Nineteen volatile compounds were identi-
ed and their aromatic notes were assigned. In addition to safranal, the main compound found, (30.14
43.94% in mass of total volatiles), other major compounds were 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohex-
Keywords: en-1-carboxaldehyde and 3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclohexene-1-one. These compounds were signicantly dif-
Aroma
ferent for less than 1 year storage when compared with the 34 and 89 years of storage, although the
Olfactometry
Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)
minor constituents 2-hydroxy-3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-en-1,4-dione and isomer of 4-hydroxy-3,5,5-
Volatile prole trimethyl-2-cyclohex-1-one varied signicantly for all three harvests. Positive and negative aroma
descriptors were related with the overall saffron chemical volatile composition. Saffron with less than
1 year storage contained a higher proportion of saffron, ower and spicy descriptors, while the oldest saf-
frons (34 and 89 years of storage) contained volatiles with vegetal, caramel and citrus notes. The aro-
matic notes that contributed most to saffron storage differentiation are spicy, freshly cut grass and
vegetable.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction called picrocrocin, and 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-

Since ancient times, the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus L. have
been considered the most precious and expensive of spices, due
to laborious harvest and post-harvest processing. During the dehy-
dration process, important modications in saffron composition
take place in terms of colour (Bolandi & Ghoddusi, 2006; Carmona
et al., 2005), taste (Carmona et al., 2007) and aroma (Carmona,
Zalacain, Salinas & Alonso, 2006, 2007), the three main character-
istics of saffron. Its quality in the international trade has been
mainly determined by specications recommended by the ISO
3632, the latest revision of which has given rise to the Technical
Specication ISO 3632/TS (2003).
But the truth is that this spice is mainly valued for its colour
and taste, as its aroma perception is quite difcult to differentiate.
With respect to saffron chemistry aroma, the major volatile
responsible is 2,6,6-trimethyl-1,3-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxalde-
hyde, namely safranal (Tarantilis, Beljebar, Manfait, & Polissiou,
1998; Tarantilis, Polissiou, & Manfait, 1994; Tarantilis, Tsoupras,
& Polissiou, 1995), which is obtained from 4-(b-D-glucopyranosyl-
oxy)-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexene-1-carboxaldehyde, commonly
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 967 599310; fax: +34 967 599238.
E-mail address: Gonzalo.Alonso@uclm.es (G.L. Alonso).
1-carboxaldehyde, also known as HTCC, during the drying process
(Himeno & Sano, 1987; Raina, Agarwal, Bhatia, & Gaur, 1996). As
safranal is not present in fresh stigmas, its concentration in saffron
depends strongly on both drying and storage conditions (Himeno &
Sano, 1987; Lozano, Delgado, Gmez, Rubio, & Iborra, 2000; Raina
et al., 1996).
The other saffron volatile constituents are divided into two
groups depending on their structure and/or precursors. The rst is
made up of the C9 and C10 groups of compounds having structures
that bear a distinct similarity to that of safranal as 3,5,5-trimethyl-
2-cyclohexene-1-one (isophorone), and also related compounds
as 2,2,6-trimethyl-1,4-cyclohexanedione, isomer of 4-hydroxy-
3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclohex-1-one, 2,6,6-trimethyl-2-cyclohexene-
1,4-dione (4-ketoisophorone), 3,5,5-trimethyl-3-cyclohexen-1-one
(an isomer of isophorone) and 2-hydroxy-4,4,6-trimethyl-2,5-
cyclohexadien-1-one. The second group, known as C13norisopre-
noids, proceeds from degradation of lipophilic carotenoids and
includes the constituents with a partially unsaturated C4 chain in
the 1-position, and to this group belong 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-tri-
methyl-3-oxocyclohexa-1,4-diene-1-carboxaldehyde, HTCC, 2,6,
6-trimethyl-1,4-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxaldehyde (an isomer of
safranal) and 3-[(E)-but-1-enyl]-2,4,4-trimethyl-cyclohex-2-enol
(Rdel & Petrzika, 1991; Tarantilis & Polissiou, 1997; Winterhalter
& Straubinger, 2000; Zarghami & Heinz, 1971).

0963-9969/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2010.03.025
1330 L. Maggi et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334
Numerous papers have been written on saffron volatile content
(Alonso, Salinas, Esteban-Infantes, & Snchez-Fernndez, 1996;
Alonso, Salinas, & Garijo, 1998; Carmona, Zalacain, Salinas, & Alon-
so, 2007; Du, Wang, Hu, & Yao, 2008; Kanakis, Daferera, Tarantilis,
& Polissiou, 2004; Maggi et al., 2009; Zougagh, Ros, & Valcrcel,
2006), but few on saffron aroma contribution. In addition, these
references are limited by the number of samples collected, a max-
imum of three (Cadwallader, 2002; Narasimhan, Chand, & Raja-
lakshmi, 1992; Rdel & Petrzika, 1991). In general, these studies
on saffron sensory evaluation remarked that a good aroma quality
was given by sweet, oral and spicy notes.
The main objective of this study was to analyse 73 samples with
different storage time in order to determine how saffron volatile
proles and its sensory characteristics change during storage. Aro-
matic descriptors obtained by GCMS/FID-O will be related with
overall saffron chemical volatile composition which has been ana-
lysed by USAEGCMS.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Samples
A total of 73 Spanish samples with three different times of stor-
age distributed as follows were analysed: 50 samples with less
than 1 year of storage, 13 between 3 and 4 storage years, and 10
with 89 years of storage. All samples were obtained directly from
the producers to guarantee their origin and harvest. The samples
were kept at 4 C in absence of light until their analysis.
2.2. Chemicals and reagents
Standard: safranal with a purity of 98% was supplied by Sigma
Aldrich (Madrid, Spain).
Solvents: diethyl ether was purchased from Panreac (Barcelona,
Spain).
2.3. Procedure and instrumentation
2.3.1. Isolation of the volatile compounds (USAE)
Ultrasound assisted extraction was performed in an ultrasound
water bath Sonorex (Berlin, Germany) Super RK 255H type
(300  150  150 mm internal dimensions) at the xed-frequency
of 35 kHz. The temperature of the sonicated water bath was 25 C.
The sample ask was charged with 4 g of saffron stigmas. The sol-
vent system extractant was 40 mL of diethyl ether. Each saffron
sample was sonicated twice for 15 min (two fractions per saffron
sample). For each sonication a new volume of the solvent system
extractant was added in the sample ask. The organic extract
(80 mL) was concentrated using a rotary evaporator Laborata
4000 Efcient (Heidolph Instruments GmbH & Co. KG, Schwabach,
Germany). The volume of the nal organic extract in diethyl ether
was 4 mL.
2.3.2. Volatile analysis (GC/MSFID-O)
In order to tentatively identify the volatile compounds of saf-
frons organic extract, GCMS was used. A Hewlett Packard 5890
Series II chromatograph (Palo Alto, CA, USA) equipped with a
5972 Series mass selective detector (MS) in the electron impact
mode (70 eV) and a HP-5 ms capillary column (30 m, 0.25 mm
i.d., 0.25 lm lm thickness) with helium as carrier gas at 1 mL/
min was used for the analysis of the organic extract. Column tem-
perature was initially kept for 3 min at 50 C, then gradually in-
creased to 180 C with a rate of 3 C/min, and nally increased to
250 C with a rate of 15 C/min and kept for 5 min. The injector
and detector temperatures were set at 220 and 290 C, respec-
tively. One microlitre of the sample was injected manually in the
splitless mode. The identication of volatile compounds was per-
formed as described in previous works (Anastasaki et al., 2009;
Maggi et al., 2009). The quantication of volatile compounds pres-
ent in saffron was carried out using safranal as reference as has
been reported previously (Anastasaki et al., 2009; Maggi et al.,
2009).
One sample per harvest was subjected to gas chromatography
olfactometry (GCO) under the same chromatographic conditions
(column, temperature, gas ow rate) as above on a Thermo Scien-
tic Focus GC (Thermo Electron SpA, Milan, Italy). The chromatog-
rapher was equipped with a splitter dividing efuent between a
ame ionization detector and an olfactometry port with humidied
air as a make-up (sniffer 9000 system, Brechbhler, Scientic Anal-
ysis Solution, Switzerland). The identication was based upon
retention times, retention indices. Mass spectrometry was used to
conrm the identications. Snifng of the column efuent was per-
formed by three panellists that were familiarised with saffron aro-
ma. When an odour was detected, the panellist would slide a lever
on a potentiometer for which the amount of movement reected
the intensity of the odour. This information, in the form of peaks
outputted to the instrument software, could be overlaid over the
data from the FID detector and used to determine which peaks were
aroma descriptors. Samples were run three times by each panellist.
2.4. Statistical analysis
Evaluation of the signicance of differences was performed
using analysis of variance (ANOVA). A discriminant analysis was
also carried out. The statistical program was SPSS 17.0 for Win-
dows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Chemical volatile content
The eight main volatile components represent 95%, 89% and 87%
for saffron with less than 1 year, 34 and 89 years of storage,
respectively (Fig. 1). In all samples, safranal (compound 1) repre-
sented the main constituent of volatile composition, contributing
highly to saffron aroma due to its high impact factor (Cadwallader,
2002). The trend observed in Fig. 1 in relation with safranal is in
agreement with the previous bibliography, since it is known that
during the rst 2 years of storage, safranal content increased and
then decreased again (Carmona et al., 2005, 2006; Carmona, Zalac-
ain, Salinas, & Alonso, 2007). The same behaviour was observed for
the samples included in this study, even if the mean value for saf-
fron with 89 years of storage went down it was not signicantly
different from samples with less than 1 year.
The presence of 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-3-oxocyclohexa-
1,4-diene-1-carboxaldehyde (compound 2) (Fig. 1) in the volatile
fraction extracts depends greatly on the extraction procedure, as
it was conrmed previously by Kanakis et al. (2004). While several
authors report its content as fewer than 2.30% (Rdel & Petrzika,
1991), for others (Semiond et al., 1996) it was found with a range
of 7.533.8% when supercritical uid extraction with CO2 was per-
formed. A substantial difference was found for the same saffron
sample (more than 15% difference) when it is extracted with other
extraction techniques such as the microsimultaneous hydrodistil-
lationextraction (MSDE) and ultrasound assisted extraction
(Kanakis et al., 2004). Together with its erratic behaviour (Fig. 1),
the previous information suggests that compound 2 is not a suit-
able marker for volatile differentiation.
HTCC (4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-carboxalde-
hyde, compound 3) and isophorone (3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclohex-
 L. Maggi et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334 1331

<1year storage 3-4 years storage 8-9 years storage

50
45 b
40
a
35
% content a
30
25
20
b a ab
15 b b
b
10 a a a b a a a
a a b a a
5 b a c
0
com pound 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

CHO CHO CHO O OH O

O O
OH OH O O O O OH

Aromatic notes Saffron Fresh Spicy Flower Vegetable Flower Vegetable Caramel
cut grass

For each compound, different letters among bars indicate significant differences at 0.05% level.

Fig. 1. Mean value (expressed % in mass of total volatiles content %) of the rst eight volatile compounds detected in saffron belonging to different harvests.

ene-1-one, compound 4), were signicantly different for 1 year
storage saffron when compared with the other two times (34
and 89 storage years). Its disappearance from 1 to 34 storage
years was congruent with the increase in safranal content, thus
supporting the theory that it could act as a reservoir for safranal
generation during storage (Carmona, Zalacain, & Alonso, 2006).
The values for compound 4, which was the main compound
belonging to the C9 group, were according to the scientic bibliog-
raphy (Rdel & Petrzika, 1991; Tarantilis & Polissiou, 1997). This
compound plays a noticeable role in the generation of new com-
pounds during the aging process (Carmona et al., 2006). For
2,2,6-trimethyl-1,4-cyclohexanedione (compound 5), no differ-
ences were observed for one and 89 years of storage, while this
compound showed a decrease within samples storaged during 3
4 years in comparison with the other two groups of samples. On
the other hand, the content of 2,6,6-trimethyl-2-cyclohexene-1,4-
dione, known also as 4-ketoisophorone (compound 7) and 2-hy-
droxy-4,4,6-trimethyl-2,5-cyclohexadien-1-one (compound 8)
were structurally related to compound 5 (C9 structure com-
pounds). These results were consistent with the mechanism pro-
posed by Carmona et al. (2006) and updated in this paper
(Fig. 2). As previously mentioned, compound 4 is degraded to gen-
erate compounds 7 and 8, having a common pathway (Fig. 2) and
different from compound 5. For 4-hydroxy-3,5,5-trimethyl-2-

Fig. 2. Proposed generation mechanism of the most relevant saffron aroma compounds.
1332 L. Maggi et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334

<1year storage 3-4 years storage 8-9 years storage

5
c

4
c
b
3
% content

2
b
b
a b b b
1 a a a a a
a c
b b a c b b b
a b a b a a a a
a a
0
compound 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

CHO O CHO CHO CH=CH-CH2 CH3 O CHO CHO OH

OH OH

OH OH O
O OH O
O O
OH O O OH
Isomer of Isomer of
compound 9 compound 6

Aromatic notes Citrus Citrus Flower Caramel Vegetable Flower Citrus Vegetable Caramel Flower Vegetable

For each compound, different letters among bars indicate significant differences at 0.05% level.

Fig. 3. Mean value (expressed % in mass of total volatiles content %) of the minor volatile compounds detected in saffron belonging to different harvests.

cyclohex-1-one (compound 6), no differences have been found for
the 3 groups of samples (Fig. 3), although this compound is an
intermediate of isomer of 4-hydroxy-3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclohex-
1-one (compound 19) which increases its content signicantly
with storage time.
With regard to the minor constituents (Fig. 3), those able to dis-
tinguish different storage times were isophorone-4-methylene
(compound 10), 2-hydroxy-3,5,5-trimethylcyclohex-2-en-1,4-
dione (compound 11), 2-phenylethanol (compound 14), 3-[(E)-
but-1-enyl]-2,4,4-trimethyl-cyclohex-2-enol (compound 15),
2,6,6-trimethyl-3-oxo-1-cyclohexen-1-carboxaldehyde (com-
pound 17), 2,2-dimethyl-cyclohexane-1-carboxaldehyde (com-
pound 18) and compound 19, especially compounds 11 and 19.
Compound 11 varied signicantly among the three harvests. The
content of 2,6,6-trimethyl-1,4-cyclohexadiene-1-carboxaldehyde
(compound 12), the safranal isomer, decreased as safranal did since
probably they shared the same mechanism of formation (Carmona,
Zalacain, Salinas, & Alonso, 2007). On the contrary, isomer of
4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-3-oxocyclohex-1-en-1carboxaldehyde
(compound 13) and compound 17 increased their content during
storage probably due to the oxidation of safranal proposed in
Fig. 4. Also, the mean value of compound 15 increased during stor-
age. Furthermore, it could be an intermediary of the C9 or C10 com-
pounds, such as compounds 7 and 19, which may explain their
increment. Compound 19 signicantly increased with the storage
time, thus it could be considered as a warning signal and an indi-
cator of old harvests. Other minor compound such as 14 is charac-
teristic of Greek saffron due to the dehydration process used in this
country (Carmona, Zalacain, Salinas, & Alonso, 2007; Goliaris,
1999). Its high concentration could be considered negative when

CHO

CHO O
OH
CHO (13)

? (1) CHO
*
CHO
OH
(3) * O
(17)
(12)
*
* These compound pathways come from Carmona et al. (2006a).
Fig. 4. Possible evolution of compounds during the storage and aging step.
 L. Maggi et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334
the presence of stamens or an excess of pollen are indicated in saf-
fron (Goliaris, 1999). On the other hand, its presence could be
positive and used as a genuineness indicator for saffron with a
determined production origin (Carmona, Zalacain, Salinas, &
Alonso, 2007).
3.2. Aromatic notes associated to volatile compounds
Saffron samples have been analysed by GCO, and aroma
descriptors have been assigned to the nineteen volatile saffron
constituents identied by GC/MS (Figs. 1 and 3). In this study, se-
ven typical aromatic notes have been assigned to these com-
pounds. The major volatile compound in all saffron samples was
safranal, which has been identied as typical saffron aroma (Cad-
wallader, Baek, & Cai, 1997; Rdel & Petrzika, 1991). The odour of
compound 2 was characterised as freshly cut grass, while Rdel
and Petrzika (1991) attributed it to a hydrolysate note. Since this
note includes many ways of expression, we can assume that the
freshly cut grass has a hydrolysate note. A spicy note has been as-
signed to compound 3 as has already been reported by Rdel and
Petrzika (1991). Flower notes are due to compounds 4, 6, 11, 14
and 2,2-dimethyl-cyclohexane-1-carboxaldehyde (compound 18).
However, compounds 4 and 14 had a pungent ower note, while
compounds 6 and 11 a fresh ower note. Compounds 5, 7, 13, 16
and 19 were characterized by vegetable notes ranging from a grass
to hay smell. Rdel and Petrzika (1991) assigned caramel notes to
compound 8, the same note attributed to it in this study, whereas
Cadwallader (2002) classied it as a spicy aroma with reminiscent
notes of saffron.
For saffron with less than 1 year, the high content of spicy and
ower notes was considered as a positive descriptor as it is an indi-
cator of a recent harvest. The saffron sample with 89 years of stor-
age has higher content of vegetable, caramel and citrus notes. All
compounds associated with a vegetable note increased with stor-
age time. The caramel descriptor associated to compounds 8, 12
and 17 and the citrus notes related to 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-
3-oxocyclohex-1-en-1carboxaldehyde (compound 9), compounds
10 and 15, also increased with the storage time. Although the con-
centration of compound 8 is much lower than safranal, this may
have an important impact on the nal perception of saffron aroma
as reported by Cadwallader et al. (1997) when studied this spice in
terms of aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) and later GCO
determination.
The different aromatic notes associated with their correspond-
ing compounds were used to differentiate the saffron samples
according to the three different storage times. The samples were
clearly separated by two canonical discriminant functions, the rst
explaining 91.5% of the variance and the second explaining 100% of
the accumulated variance. The content of compounds with aro-
matic notes spicy, vegetable and freshly cut grass contributed most
to the differentiation among samples with different storage times.
The lower storage time, the higher the content of compounds with
spicy and freshly cut grass aromatic notes. While the highest con-
tents of compounds with vegetable notes were found in samples
with 89 years of storage.
Acknowledgments
This study has been co-nanced by EC 6th Framework Pro-
gramme for Research as a Research Project for the benet of SMEs
Associations (SAFFIC COLL-CT-2006-Contract Number 030195-2).
We thank the entire Project Consortium and the Project Ofcer
Mr. Valcrcel (e-mail: German.VALCARCEL@ec.europa.eu) for their
support and collaboration. The authors wish to thank Assistant
Professor G. Kotseridis for the olfactometry analysis and Professor
1333
M.R. Salinas for her analysis supervision. Thanks to Ms. K. Walsh
for proofreading the English text.
References
Alonso, G. L., Salinas, M. R., Esteban-Infantes, F. J., & Snchez-Fernndez, M. A.
(1996). Determination of safranal from saffron (Crocus sativus L.) by thermal
desorptiongas chromatography. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry,
44(11), 185188.
Alonso, G. L., Salinas, M. R., & Garijo, J. (1998). Method to determine the authenticity
of aroma of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Journal of Food Protection, 61(11),
15251528.
Anastasaki, E., Kanakis, C., Pappas, C. A., Maggi, L., del Campo, C. P., Carmona, M.,
et al. (2009). Geographical differentiation of saffron by GCMSFID and
chemometrics. European Food Research and Technology, 229, 899905.
Bolandi, M., & Ghoddusi, H. B. (2006). Flavour and colour changes during processing
and storage of saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Developments in Food Science, 43,
323326.
Cadwallader, K. R. (2002). Flavor chemistry of saffron. In R. L. Rouseff & P.
Winterhalter (Eds.), Carotenoid-derived aroma compound (pp. 220239).
Washington, DC, USA: ACS Symposium Series 802.
Cadwallader, K. R., Baek, H. H., & Cai, M. (1997). Characterization of saffron avor by
aroma extract dilution analysis. In S. J. Riach & C. T. Ho (Eds.), Spice: Flavor
chemistry and antioxidant properties (pp. 6679). Washington, DC, USA: ACS
Symposium Series 660.
Carmona, M., Martnez, J., Zalacain, A., Rodrguez-Mndez, M. L., de Saja, J. A., &
Alonso, G. L. (2006). Analysis of saffron volatile fraction by TDGCMS and e-
nose. European Food Research and Technology, 223(11), 96101.
Carmona, M., Snchez, A. M., Ferreres, F., Zalacain, A., Toms-Barbern, F., & Alonso,
G. L. (2007). Identication of the avonoid fraction in saffron spice by LC/DAD/
MS/MS: Comparative study of samples from different geographical origins. Food
Chemistry, 100, 445450.
Carmona, M., Zalacain, A., & Alonso, G. L. (2006). In S. L. Bomarzo (Ed.), The chemical
composition of saffron: Color taste and aroma (pp. 123124). Albacete, Spain.
Carmona, M., Zalacain, A., Pardo, J. E., Lpez, E., Alvarruiz, A., & Alonso, G. L. (2005).
Inuence of different drying and aging conditions on saffron constituents.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53(10), 39743979.
Carmona, M., Zalacain, A., Salinas, M. R., & Alonso, G. L. (2006). Generation of saffron
volatiles by thermal carotenoid degradation. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry, 54(18), 68256834.
Carmona, M., Zalacain, A., Salinas, M. R., & Alonso, G. L. (2007). A new approach to
saffron aroma. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 47(2), 145159.
Du, H., Wang, J., Hu, Z., & Yao, X. (2008). Quantitative structureretention
relationship study of the constituents of saffron aroma in SPMEGCMS
based on the projection pursuit regression method. Talanta, 77(1), 360365.
Goliaris, A. H. (1999). Saffron cultivation in Greece. In Saffron Crocus sativus L.
medicinal and aromatic plants. Industrial proles (pp. 7387). Amsterdam:
Harwood Academic Publishers.
Himeno, H., & Sano, K. (1987). Synthesis of crocin, picrocrocin and safranal by
saffron stigma-like structures proliferated in vitro. Agricultural and Biological
Chemistry, 9(51), 23952400.
ISO 3632-1,2 Technical specication (2003). Saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Part 1
(specication) and part 2 (test methods). Geneva, Switzerland: International
Organisation for Standardization.
Kanakis, C. D., Daferera, D. J., Tarantilis, P. A., & Polissiou, M. G. (2004). Qualitative
determination of volatile compounds and quantitative evaluation of safranal
and 4-hydroxy-2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexene-1-carboxaldehyde (HTCC) in
Greek saffron. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52(14),
45154521.
Lozano, P., Delgado, D., Gmez, D., Rubio, M., & Iborra, J. L. (2000). A non-destructive
method to determine the safranal content of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) by
supercritical carbon dioxide extraction combined with high-performance liquid
chromatography and gas chromatography. Journal of Biochemical and Biophysical
Methods, 43(13), 367378.
Maggi, L., Carmona, M., del Campo, C. P., Kanakis, C. D., Anastasaki, E., Tarantilis, P.
A., et al. (2009). Worldwide market screening of saffron volatile composition.
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 89, 19501954.
Narasimhan, S., Chand, N., & Rajalakshmi, D. (1992). Saffron: Quality evaluation by
sensory prole and gas chromatography. Journal of Food Quality, 15,
303314.
Raina, B. L., Agarwal, S. G., Bhatia, A. K., & Gaur, G. S. (1996). Changes in pigments
and volatiles of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) during processing and storage. Journal
of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 71, 2732.
Rdel, W., & Petrzika, M. (1991). Analysis of volatile components of saffron. Journal
of High Resolution Chromatography, 14(11), 771774.
Semiond, D., Dautraix, S., Desage, M., Majdalani, R., Casabianca, H., & Brazier, J. L.
(1996). Identication and isotopic analysis of safranal from supercritical uid
extraction and alcoholic extracts of saffron. Analytical Letters, 29, 10271039.
Tarantilis, P. A., Beljebar, A., Manfait, M., & Polissiou, M. (1998). FT-IR, FT-Raman
spectroscopic study of carotenoids from saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and some
derivatives. Spectrochimica Acta Part A, 54(44), 651657.
Tarantilis, P. A., & Polissiou, M. (1997). Isolation and identication of the aroma
components from saffron (Crocus sativus L.). Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry, 45(22), 459462.
1334 L. Maggi et al. / Food Research International 43 (2010) 13291334

Tarantilis, P. A., Polissiou, M., & Manfait, M. (1994). Separation of picrocrocin, cis- Winterhalter, P., & Straubinger, R. M. (2000). Saffron. Renewed interest in an ancient
trans-crocins and safranal of saffron using high-performance liquid spice. Food Reviews International, 16, 3959.
chromatography with photodiode-array detection. Journal of Chromatography Zarghami, N. S., & Heinz, D. E. (1971). Monoterpene aldehydes and isophorone-
A, 664(1), 5561. related compounds of saffron. Phytochemistry, 10, 27552761.
Tarantilis, P. A., Tsoupras, G., & Polissiou, M. (1995). Determination of saffron Zougagh, M., Ros, A., & Valcrcel, M. (2006). Determination of total safranin by
(Crocus sativus L.) components in crude plant extract using high-performance in situ acid hydrolysis in supercritical uid media: Application to the quality
liquid chromatographyUVvisible photodiode-array detection mass control of commercial saffron. Analytica Chimica Acta, 578(2), 117121.
spectrometry. Journal of Chromatography A, 699(12), 107118.