Efficient purification of CrocinI from saffron stigmas using antisolvent precipitation to implications for food technology

Major bioactive compounds, crocin compounds, the major bio-actives of saffron, exhibit significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties. Their high commercial value is attributed to the difficulty of obtaining large quantities in a highly pure form. In the current study, antisolvent precipitation, optimized through response surface methods (RSM), was applied to the selective enhance the concentration of both total crocins and crocin-I from the extract of saffron. The best extraction conditions were 59.94 mg/mL of saffron concentration, 3.09 of antisolvent-to-solvent ratio, 782.42 µL/min of addition rate, and 28.3 °C of temperature. In the case of using ethyl acetate as an antisolvent under the said conditions, the total content of crocin increased by 81%, with crocin-I accounting for 55% of the total crocins. Compared to this, the use of ethyl acetoacetate as the antisolvent increased the crocin-I content from 26 to 47%. This process also reduced undesired components such as picrocrocin. By utilizing antisolvent precipitation, the method offers a cost-effective, straightforward approach for enriching crocins, especially thermally sensitive crocin-I, without the need for complex heating or cooling systems. This method was a straightforward and efficient means of boosting the yield of very pure crocins, offering a scalable and practicable answer to the challenges of saffron extraction and purification.