The document discusses saffron, including its history, properties, uses in food and medicine, and health benefits. It provides an introduction to saffron and three case studies that evaluate: 1) the advantages of saffron eye extract compared to stigmas in cold desserts, 2) the effects of incorporating different concentrations of saffron powder into pasta, and 3) the antioxidant activity of juices from cold-pressed saffron floral byproducts. The overall conclusion is that saffron is a valuable spice with uses in food, textiles and medicine due to compounds that provide color, taste, aroma and health benefits.

1. WELCOME

2. Ziaullah Sulaimankhil
Roll No. 21058 (M. Sc. 2nd Year)
Division of Food Science & Postharvest Technology
IARI 2019

3. • Introduction of Saffron
• History ,functional and uses
• Health Benefits
CONTENTS
• Case studies
• Overall Conclusion
• Future Path

4.  Saffron is a beautiful spice plant grows worldwide
 Its the most expensive spice (1kg =2000 $) with the
following properties
High value
Easy to grow
Suitable to be lead by women
High monetary value
And requires low investment
 Saffron can store for many years (2-3 years)
INTRODUCTION

5. HISTORY
 The origin of this plant is Iran (Moghaddasi,2010)
 Currently cultivated more in Iran, India, Afghanistan
,Spain, Greece and etc
 World production estimated abound 250 Mt per year
 Iran grows more then 47.000 ha and exporting 137 Mt
of saffron
 In India 5,707 hectares of land is under saffron
cultivation with an annual production of about 16,000
kilograms (Dar et al.,2018)

6. Introduction of Crocus sativus.L
• Crocus sativus L.
is a plant widely
used for the
production of the
saffron spice
from the stigmas.
• This is the most
valuable part of
the flower due to
its numerous uses
both in the food
and health sector
Tuberoso et al., 2016

7. Functional properties and uses of saffron
• Historical uses :(used saffron for religious rites
and celebrations)
• Uses in food : (flavoring ,coloring and aroma)
• Uses in the textiles industry:(Interest in
saffron as a dye, with the development of
synthetic coloring)
• Uses in traditional medicine (antispasmodic,
eupeptic, sedative, carminative, diaphoretic,
expectorant, stomachic, stimulant and
aphrodisiac )

8. 1. Protects against cancer
2. Promotes learning and memory retention
3. In delayed puberty
4. To increase vitality
5. In patchy baldness
6. Protection against cold
7. Food Additives
Health Benefits Of Saffron (Kesar)
Moghaddasi, 2010

9. Saffron used in foods for these purposes
Color (Crocin “C44 H64 O24” is the most influential
chemical in the coloring power of saffron)
Taste (picrocrocin “C16 H26 O7” is the major factor for
the bitter taste of saffron).
Aroma (Safranal “C10 H14 O“ it is the constituent
primarily responsible for the aroma of saffron)
Use of saffron in food
Valizadeh, 1988

10. Chemical components of saffron
Carbohydrates , minerals, mucilage, vitamins,
safranal, picrocrocin ,crocin , carotene and etc.
Moghaddasi, 2010

12. CASE STUDY-I
Almodovar et al., 2018
Study the advantages and culinary
application of affron eye compare
to saffron stigmas
Objective

13. • Two cold desserts of white chocolate soup and cheese cake were
prepared employing saffron stigmas or affron ® eye extracts.
white chocolate soup , yogurt recipe Cheese cake and orange jam dessert
Materials and methods

14. Sensory analysis
1- Appearance
2- Color
3- Taste
4- Texture
5- Acceptance

15. No significant differences were obtained for the
aroma, color strength and texture .
Taste showed significant differences between dishes
(f=6.07; p<0.05), with almost two fold better results
for the affron®eye desserts, compared to those
prepared with saffron stigmas (from 3.5 to 6.8)
The mean values of the consumer´s acceptability
showed significant differences between dishes
(f = 7.50; p<0.05).
Result of White Chocolate Soup , yogurt And Saffron

16. Results of microbiological study
Results of Cheese cake with orange jam and saffron
1. Compared to saffron stigmas, the recipes with affron®eye
showed about 35% better acceptability (from 4.9 to 6.6),
2. Affron®eye about 63% better taste (from 4.9 to 6.6),
3. No significant differences were observed.

17. Conclusion
3-Compared with saffron stigmas, affron®eye extract was a
micro-biologically stable product, on total aerobic count and
molds.
2- Affron®eye is easy to use and fast to dissolve in aqueous
base cold dishes or food products, and does not need pre-
heating or previous water/alcohol addition to dissolve it.
1-The acceptability results of the white chocolate
with affron®eye were about 70% better
compared to the recipe with saffron stigmas.

18. CASE STUDY-II
Evaluation of the quality of pasta enriched with different
concentrations of saffron powder
Objective
Armellini et al., 2018

19. Pasta sample preparation (70 % w/w wheat flour and 30% water )
Control
Cooking (60 g pasta for each sample cooked in
boiling tap water 1.5 lit for 1.5 or 3 min)
Saffron Powder was added in different concentration 0% ,0.1 ,0.2 & 0,4% w/w
No filtered saffron
enriched pasta
Filtered saffron
enriched pasta
Sample were drained and cooled by soaking in cold water
for 10 sec

20. Saffron concentration ,cooking medium and acronym of samples

21. 2- The addition of
higher con.. of saffron
in pasta resulted in a
reduction in the
water uptake during
cooking
Result of moisture
content and water
activity
1-Befor cooking
moisture & aw in all
samples are same
(>30% & aw > 0.97 )

22. Result : color
1- L- value decreased with the in corporation of saffron powder
2-With the increasing of saffron con. resulted of (a and a/b )values increase

23. Result:
Antioxidant activity: The antioxidant properties of saffron
stigma are generally attributed to its phenolic content
Phenol content
1-All pasta samples showed,
before cooking, similar values of
TPC regardless of the addition of
saffron powder
2-The TPC decrease in pasta
samples with the lower saffron
concentration
3-Samples with a higher
concentration of saffron that
resulted in a higher content of
antioxidant compounds

24. 1-Fresh uncooked pasta control (C1) presented significant lower
antioxidant values, for both DPPH and ABTS analysis, when compared to
saffron enriched samples .
2-A similar effect was observed for 0.1-NF and 0.2-F samples during cooking,
starting, however, by an initial TE value higher than C1 and no effect due to
cooking time
Cont..
Antioxidant activity

25. Conclusion
1- The presence of saffron significantly influenced
textural and physical-chemical properties of pasta
2- New formulated samples showed higher scores in
sensory evaluation, especially those formulated with
non-filtered saffron extracts with higher saffron
concentration (0.2 and 0.4%)
3- Non filtered saffron observed by having higher
antioxidant activities than filtered

26. Case study III
1. Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of juices obtained from
cold-pressing of saffron (C. sativus L.)
2. Investigation of the polar fraction of the extracts using high
resolution mass spectrometry
Objectives
Tuberoso et al., 2016

27. Evaluate the antioxidant activity of juices obtained from cold-
pressing of saffron (C. sativus L.) floral by-products
Saffron floral by-products were obtained from saffron spice producer
The floral by-products were split in two batches for extraction
Saffron flower residues were left stacked at room temperature
(17–21 oC) inside the production plant until the extraction
The juice extraction procedure was done squeezing the floral by-
products using pressing machine
The juices were centrifuged at 6000 rpm, filtered through cellulose
acetate GD/X septa
stored at 20 oC in dark glass bottles until analysis, which was
performed within 1 month from sample collection
Materials and method
48 h from harvesting24 h from harvesting

28. Significant differences between floral by-products pressed after 24 and 48 h
1- Particularly, the juice yield increase after 48 h (16.8 ± 1.3 mL/100 g)
2- The chromatic coordinates showed similar values
3- The in vitro antioxidant assays that were used indicated high values for total
phenols (TP), antioxidant (FRAP) and antiradical (DPPH ) properties in the two
juices, which is increased in 48 h.
Result

29. Result of cytotoxicity of two floral by products
Against human cancer
of Caco-2 cells

30. Conclusion
3- The juices showed remarkable antioxidant activity in
several in vitro systems of oxidative stress.
1- The results show that extracts obtained 48 h post-
harvest contained higher levels of total polar phenols
and had the highest antioxidant activity in all of the
performed assays
2- The overall data suggest that juices obtained from C.
sativus floral by-products are an interesting source of
bioactive molecules.

31. Overall Conclusion
• Saffron, C. sativus is one the plant grows worldwide
for production of stigma and various extracts and
named as red gold plant
• Its used in food, textiles industry and traditional
medicine
• Saffron is used in food industry by having crocin,
picrocrocin and safranal compounds for color, taste
and aroma of the food, respectively
• Saffron is rich source of carbohydrates , minerals,
mucilage, vitamins, safranal, picrocrocin ,crocin ,
carotene and etc.

32. Future Path
 Saffron need to study, for more specialize and
specific use of them in foods
 Study the utilization of saffron health hazards to
minimize the side effects on human
 Future studies are needed to further investigate the
mechanism underlying some of these bioactive
properties and to promote the use of extracts derived
from saffron floral byproduct.