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Agronomic, chemical and genetic variability of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) of different origin by LC-UV–vis-DAD and AFLP analyses

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Abstract

The identification of a bi-univocal correspondence between geographical origin of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and the composition of its stigmas has recently been the subject of many research papers, which have focused on the analysis of the differences among the so called “minor components”, such as flavonoids and volatiles, in the secondary metabolic pattern of this spice. Saffron pigments (crocetin esters), on the other hand, constitute the majority of the metabolites found in its stigmas, and their spectrophotometric measurement is still used as an official method to determine the quality of the spice in terms of coloring power. To our knowledge, no attempts have been made to find a correspondence between the geographical origin of different saffron samples and their morphological traits and pigments pattern. In this paper, we have demonstrated that saffron corms of different origins, grown in the same experimental field, produce daughter corms with different dimensions and still produce stigma samples with different pigment profiles. Furthermore, daughter corm dimensions and pigment profile even more so, may be related to the origin of the sample, and therefore pigments can be used as chemotaxonomic markers. Compositional analyses results were corroborated by genetic data obtained using AFLP molecular markers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNR-Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare, Via P. Gaifami 18, 95126, Catania, Italy

    Laura Siracusa & Giuseppe Ruberto

  2. Dipartimento di Biotecnologie per il Monitoraggio Agroalimentare e Ambientale, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Loc. Feo di Vito, 89122, Reggio Calabria, Italy

    Fabio Gresta

  3. CNR-Istituto del per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del Mediterraneo, Str.le V. Lancia, Blocco Palma I, Zona Industriale, 95121, Catania, Italy

    Giovanni Avola

  4. Dipartimento di Biologia Applicata, Università di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121, Perugia, Italy

    Emidio Albertini, Lorenzo Raggi & Gianpiero Marconi

  5. Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agrarie ed Alimentari, Università di Catania, Via Valdisavoia 5, 95123, Catania, Italy

    Grazia M. Lombardo

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  1. Laura Siracusa
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  2. Fabio Gresta
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  7. Grazia M. Lombardo
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  8. Giuseppe Ruberto
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Correspondence to Giuseppe Ruberto.

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Siracusa, L., Gresta, F., Avola, G. et al. Agronomic, chemical and genetic variability of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) of different origin by LC-UV–vis-DAD and AFLP analyses. Genet Resour Crop Evol 60, 711–721 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-012-9868-9

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