THE MICRONUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF CROCUS SATIVUS L. AND ITS CORRELATIONS BASED ON STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

This work focused on determining the micronutrient status of Crocus sativus L.stigmas with studying of the different correlations between physical-chemical compounds (moisture, minerals, ash, total phenolic content, total carotenoids, zeaxanthin, vitamins and antioxidant activity). The mineral composition (Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Mo and B) was analyzed by ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectroscopy). The total phenolic content, total carotenoids and DPPH activity were evaluated using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The retention times of zeaxanthin, vitamin E and vitamin B9 molecules as well as their contents in the saffron stigmas were determined by UHPLC and were respectively (11.473 min, 15.561 ppm), (4.588 min, 1.048 ppm) and (3.977 min, 103.382 ppm). The obtained total phenolics value was 9.51 ± 1.10mg GAE/g dry weight (DW) and for total carotenoids, 28.53 ± 2.27 mg β-carotene /g DW. Positive correlations (p < 0.05) were noted between moisture-calcium, molybdenum-magnesium, manganese-potassium, manganese-phosphorus, boron-calcium, copper-iron,total phenolic-antioxidant activity and total carotenoids-zeaxanthin. However, negative correlations were found between moisture-sodium, ash-carbon, calcium-sodium and boron-sodium. No significant correlationswere observed between ash-total phenolic, ash-carotenoids,ash-vitamin E and ash-vitamin B9.