Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, 80138 Naples, Italy.
Consorzio Interuniversitario I.N.B.B., Viale Medaglie D'Oro, 00136 Rome, Italy.
Molecules. 2022 Dec 21;28(1):42. doi: 10.3390/molecules28010042.
Saffron is a spice obtained from the drying process of the stigmas of the flower Crocus sativus Linnaeus. It is well known that the organoleptic characteristics of this spice are closely linked to the production area and harvesting year. The present work aims to evaluate whether saffron samples produced in different years and origins present sensibly different crocin profiles. To achieve this goal, 120 saffron samples were harvested between 2016 and 2020 in four different Italian areas. The crocins were analysed, identified, and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) in multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM). Subsequently, ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA) was used to evaluate whether the origin and annuity significantly affected the composition of the crocins. ASCA confirmed the relevance of these effects. Eventually, soft independent modelling by class analogy (SIMCA) models were created for each of the four different origins. Mixtures of saffron from different areas were also prepared to test the robustness of the models. SIMCA provided satisfying results; in fact, models provided 100% sensitivity for three origins (Cascia, Sardinia, and Città della Pieve) on the external test set (48 samples) and 88% (sensitivity on the external test set) for the Spoleto class.
藏红花是一种香料，通过对番红花（Crocus sativus Linnaeus）柱头的干燥过程获得。众所周知，这种香料的感官特性与其产地和收获年份密切相关。本工作旨在评估不同年份和产地生产的藏红花样品是否具有明显不同的藏红花素谱。为此，在四个不同的意大利地区，于 2016 年至 2020 年期间收获了 120 个藏红花样品。采用高效液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱（HPLC-ESI-MS/MS）在多重反应监测模式（MRM）下对藏红花素进行分析、鉴定和定量。随后，采用方差分析-同时成分分析（ASCA）来评估产地和年份是否显著影响藏红花素的组成。ASCA 证实了这些影响的相关性。最终，为每个不同产地创建了软独立建模分类分析（SIMCA）模型。还制备了来自不同地区的藏红花混合物来测试模型的稳健性。SIMCA 提供了令人满意的结果；事实上，对于三个产地（卡斯奇亚、撒丁岛和皮耶韦城），模型在外部测试集（48 个样本）上的灵敏度达到 100%，在斯波莱托类的灵敏度为 88%。
