Quantitative HPLC-based metabolomics of some Iranian saffron (Crocus sativus L.) accessions

The major bioactive compounds of saffron flowers are picrocrocin, and safranal, which significantly contribute towards the quality of saffron. Nevertheless, the variation in the metabolite profiling among Iranian saffron accessions with different origins has been reported due to the uniformity of cultivation, climatic conditions, and agronomic practices. In our present report, initially, these bioactive compounds in 53 saffron accessions collected from Khorasan Razavi, the major province of saffron cultivation in Iran, were quantified through high performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) as a fast screening method for the analysis. After the screening, based on the high amount of crocins in the saffron samples, 27 sample were selected for finer separation and determination of the bioactive components by using an optimized HPLC-DAD analysis. Following a comparative fingerprinting study to find the samples with a high content of secondary metabolites and the most affecting saffron constitutes, all the HPLC-DAD chromatographic data was submitted to a statistical heat-map analysis in a MATLAB environment. From this statistical analysis, crocins and picrocrocin were found to be the most affecting factors for the categorization of the saffron stigmas. Eventually, our results illustrated a chemical diversity among the studied accessions that could be attributed to their geographical and bioclimatic distribution.