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. 2022 May:86:105971.
doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2022.105971. Epub 2022 Mar 2.

Ultrasound-assisted extraction of saffron bioactive compounds; separation of crocins, picrocrocin, and safranal optimized by artificial bee colony

Messiah Sarfarazi  1 , Qadir Rajabzadeh  2 , Razieh Tavakoli  3 , Salam A Ibrahim  4 , Seid Mahdi Jafari  5
Affiliations

Ultrasound-assisted extraction of saffron bioactive compounds; separation of crocins, picrocrocin, and safranal optimized by artificial bee colony

Messiah Sarfarazi et al. Ultrason Sonochem. 2022 May.

Abstract

In this work, a four-factor five-level full factorial central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of saffron major components, namely picrocrocin, safranal and crocin. The process parameters included ethanol concentration (0-100%), extraction time (2-10 min), duty cycle (0.2-1.0) and ultrasonic amplitude (20-100%). The extracted compounds were measured both by spectrophotometry and chromatography techniques. The results revealed that the middle concentrations of ethanol and relatively long process durations along with high duty cycles and ultrasonic amplitudes had the most profound impact on the yields of the extracted bioactives. UAE was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial bee colony (ABC); a comparison between these methods indicated their optimization power was approximately the same. According to the RSM analysis, an ethanol concentration of 58.58%, extraction time of 6.85 min, duty cycle of 0.82 and amplitude of 91.11% were the optimum extraction conditions, while the optimal conditions resulting from ABC were 53.07%, 7.32 min, 0.93 and 100% for the UAE variables respectively. Finally, HPLC analysis was carried out on the UAE optimum extract resulting from RSM. Four crocetin esters were detected in the optimal extract.

Keywords: Artificial bee colony; Crocin; Picrocrocin; Response surface methodology; Saffron; Safranal; Ultrasound.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Convergence of ABC algorithm for multi-objective optimization of UAE.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Effects of ethanol concentration and time on E257, with duty cycle and ultrasonic amplitude being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Effects of duty cycle and ultrasonic amplitude on E257, with ethanol concentration and time being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Effects of ethanol concentration and ultrasonic amplitude on E330, with time and duty cycle being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Effects of time and duty cycle on E330, with ethanol concentration and ultrasonic amplitude being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Effects of ethanol concentration and duty cycle on E440, with time and ultrasonic amplitude being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Effects of time and ultrasonic amplitude on E440, with ethanol concentration and duty cycle being considered constant at their central levels.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
HPLC chromatograms of a) Sigma-Aldrich reference crocin and b) RSM-optimized UAE extract. Peaks 1–6 denote crocins 1–6.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
a) total ion chromatogram and b) mass spectrum of RSM-optimized UAE extract.
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