Geographical differentiation of saffron by GC-MS/FID and chemometrics

摘要

The volatile compounds of saffron of different origins were investigated to check their suitability as markers of geographic differentiation. A total of 247 saffron samples from Greece (40 samples), Iran (84 samples), Italy (60 samples) and Spain (63samples) which were harvested in 2006 were analysed using ultrasound-assisted extraction, gas chromatography followed by mass spectrometry and flame ionisation. All regions were easily differentiated by canonical discriminant analysis. The percentages ofcorrect classification and validation were 96.4 and 94.3%, respectively. These investigations showed the potential of saffron volatiles to discriminate saffron samples with different geographical origins.