Antioxidant capacity and chemical composition of different parts of saffron flowers

Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus L. The present study reports the antioxidant capacity and chemical compositions of various parts of saffron. The IC50 for stigma, style, stamen, petal and corm was found to be 4.94 ± 0.25, 123.68 ± 8.52, 58.97 ± 3.63, 46.02 ± 2.89 and 720.49 ± 14.32 μg/mL, respectively. The ferric reducing antioxidant power assay for these parts of saffron flower was determined and the stigma of saffron has the highest (2.36 ± 0.15 g Fe+2/100 g sample) and the corm of saffron has the lowest value (0.03 ± 0.001 g Fe+2/100 g sample). The Folin-Ciocalteu method was used to estimate the total phenolic content and the highest amount was found in stigma (183.25 ± 16.42 g quercetin/100 g sample) and the lowest amount in style of saffron (3.72 ± 0.89 g quercetin/100 g sample) respectively. The stigma and stamen of saffron were found to have 597.67 ± 11.12 and 159.14 ± 5.03 μg/g sample of carotenoid content which is highest among the selected parts of saffron. The aim of this study was to provide information about all of the saffron flower parts.