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Extraction Optimization of Saffron Nutraceuticals Through Response Surface Methodology

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Abstract

In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize the extraction of picrocrocin, safranal, and crocin, three major ingredients of saffron. The process parameters included ethanol concentration (0–100 %), extraction time (2–7 h), and temperature (5–85 °C). The extracted compounds were measured spectrophotometrically at 257, 330, and 440 nm at which picrocrocin, safranal, and crocin had the maximum absorbance values, respectively. Four models including linear, linear squares, linear interactions, and full quadratic were fitted to the final data. As expected, the best model was the full quadratic with R 2 values of 83.91, 86.60, and 92.42 % for the picrocrocin, safranal, and crocin contents, respectively. Our results indicated that high temperatures, short times, and moderate concentrations of ethanol had the superlative impact on the extraction efficiencies of the compounds. According to the response surface analysis, ethanol concentration of 33.33 %, extraction time of 2.0 h, and temperature of 85.0 °C were found to be as the optimum conditions of the process under which the empirical amounts of E % 11cm λ max were 1,190.47 ± 154.45, 474.02 ± 95.00, and 2,311.68 ± 57.37 for the picrocrocin, safranal, and crocin contents, respectively. While the theoretical values for the same responses were 1,237.27, 652.08, and 2,821.23.

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Acknowledgement

Iran National Science Foundation and the Research Institute of Food Science and Technology should be acknowledged for their financial support. Great thanks is also dedicated to Mr. Ali Ghayur Kazemi and Mrs. Zahra Khodabakhshi for their technical assistance in performing the experiments.

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Conflict of Interest

Messiah Sarfarazi declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Seid Mahdi Jafari declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Qadir Rajabzadeh declares that he has no conflict of interest.

We must include the following sentence to make sure that readers are aware that there are no ethical issues with human or animal subjects:

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Materials and Process Design Engineering, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

    Messiah Sarfarazi & Seid Mahdi Jafari

  2. Research Institute of Food Science and Technology, Mashhad, Iran

    Ghadir Rajabzadeh

  3. Pishro Food Technology Research Group, Gorgan, Iran

    Messiah Sarfarazi & Seid Mahdi Jafari

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  1. Messiah Sarfarazi
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  2. Seid Mahdi Jafari
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Correspondence to Seid Mahdi Jafari.

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Sarfarazi, M., Jafari, S.M. & Rajabzadeh, G. Extraction Optimization of Saffron Nutraceuticals Through Response Surface Methodology. Food Anal. Methods 8, 2273–2285 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-014-9995-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-014-9995-3

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