Studies On Flavor Analysis And Bioactivity Of Saffron Petals

Saffron,as a common spice,was introduced into Xizang province in China a long time ago and has been widely cultivated in Jiangsu,Zhejiang and Shanghai.The stigma of saffron has long been known as an expensive spice,and has been used in food,medicine,coloring and other applications.Due to the rich color and odor of Saffron petals,relevant studies have confirmed the active substances of Saffron petals,such as flavonoids,polysaccharides and anthocyanin.But because the Saffron stigmas is so widely used and occupies a small percentage of flowers,the rest of the saffron has long been wasted as biological waste.Therefore,the full application of Saffron petals not only avoids the waste of saffron crop resources,but also can develop new products for people to use.In this study,Saffron petals produced in Chongming City of Shanghai were taken as the main research object,and the aroma and bioactive components of Chongming saffron were analyzed.Specific research results are as follows:(1)Using three different parts of Chongming Saffron(petals,stamens and stigmas)as raw materials,GC-IMS analysis and comparison were conducted.The results showed that the volatile components of different parts were different to some extent,and the petals also had their own unique aroma components compared with the stigmas.The volatile components of Chongming Saffron petals were extracted by SBSE,SAFE and SPME,and the differences of volatile components in different extraction methods were analyzed and compared.The results showed that SBSE combined with thermal desorption could represent the aroma type of Saffron petals better.The results also showed that Saffron petals had high content of saffron aldehyde,which represents saffron aroma type,and isophorone,which represents woody aroma type,in the stigmas.(2)Using Saffron petals as raw materials,the extraction of biological active components of petals was carried out by means of five solvents with increasing polarity,namely n-hexane,dichloromethane,ethyl acetate,ethanol and water,combined with ultrasonic-assisted methods.The contents of total flavonoids(TFC),total phenols(TPC),total sugars(TCC)and anthocyanins(TAC)of the extracts from different polar parts were determined.The antioxidant activity and inhibition of α-amylase,α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase were tested.(3)The main bioactive substances in Chongming Saffron petals were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry(LC-MS),and the anti-obesity effect and mechanism of Saffron petals were investigated by network pharmacology and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.The results of LC-MS showed that there were 62 components in Saffron petals,34 of which had been confirmed to have accumulative disease targets in the online pharmacological database.Six core targets,STAT3,CREBBP,AKT1,PIK3R1,PIK3 CA and ESR1,were obtained by three species degree analysis,and compounds such as quercetin,kaempferol,pinocembrin,apigenin and myricetin were found to have regulatory effects on obesity through molecular docking verification.Through GO analysis,it was concluded that the prevention and treatment of obesity in Saffron petals mainly involved biological processes such as gene expression regulation and drug response,molecular functions such as enzyme binding and protein binding,and cellular compositions such as macromolecular complex and plasma membrane.KEGG pathway enrichment results showed that saffron petal anti-obesity pathway involved cancer pathway,HIF-1 signaling pathway,lipid and atherosclerosis pathway and other signaling pathways related to anti-obesity.This study provides some basis for the subsequent development of anti-obesity products using Saffron petals.