Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution

, Volume 60, Issue 2, pp 711–721 | Cite as

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

  • Laura Siracusa
  • Fabio Gresta
  • Giovanni Avola
  • Emidio Albertini
  • Lorenzo Raggi
  • Gianpiero Marconi
  • Grazia M. Lombardo
  • Giuseppe Ruberto
Research Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

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.

Keywords

AFLP Crocetin esters Crocus sativus L. LC-UV–vis-DAD Morphology 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Laura Siracusa
    • 1
  • Fabio Gresta
    • 2
  • Giovanni Avola
    • 3
  • Emidio Albertini
    • 4
  • Lorenzo Raggi
    • 4
  • Gianpiero Marconi
    • 4
  • Grazia M. Lombardo
    • 5
  • Giuseppe Ruberto
    • 1
  1. 1.CNR-Istituto di Chimica BiomolecolareCataniaItaly
  2. 2.Dipartimento di Biotecnologie per il Monitoraggio Agroalimentare e AmbientaleUniversità Mediterranea di Reggio CalabriaReggio CalabriaItaly
  3. 3.CNR-Istituto del per i Sistemi Agricoli e Forestali del MediterraneoCataniaItaly
  4. 4.Dipartimento di Biologia ApplicataUniversità di PerugiaPerugiaItaly
  5. 5.Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agrarie ed AlimentariUniversità di CataniaCataniaItaly

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