ATR-FTIR and Spectrometric Methods for the Assay of Crocin in Commercial Saffron Spices (Crocus savitus L.)

Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectrometric method for determination of crocin in commercial saffron samples was studied. Calibration models were built based on the peaks at spectral region of 1700–900 cm^?1 and spectral wavenumbers with correlation coefficient (r) greater than 0.99 were selected for quantification of crocin in the samples. The quantitative analysis of samples by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared was tested against reference UV-visible spectrophotometry method. Considerable correlation (r = 0.95) between both methods in prediction of crocin content among the saffron samples indicated that the proposed methodology has the potential application as a rapid screening tool.