Table 2.

Chemical composition of saffron as affected by B. subtilis FZB24 treatments during two successive growing seasons

Treatments	mg/mg dry weight of stigmas
	Crocin	Picrocrocin	Crocetin	Safranal
First season – 2004
Control	0.065 ± 0.004	0.155 ± 0.004	0.064 ± 0.003	0.065 ± 0.004
T2	0.057 ± 0.003	0.158 ± 0.002	0.054 ± 0.004	0.054 ± 0.001
T3	0.014 ± 0.003	0.154 ± 0.004	0.015 ± 0.003	0.051 ± 0.003
T4	0.063 ± 0.002	0.166 ± 0.004	0.056 ± 0.004	0.056 ± 0.004
T5	0.026 ± 0.002	0.254 ± 0.004	0.259 ± 0.002	0.071 ± 0.002
Second season – 2005
Control	0.074 ± 0.005	0.164 ± 0.005	0.075 ± 0.004	0.074 ± 0.005
T2	0.065 ± 0.004	0.167 ± 0.003	0.064 ± 0.005	0.058 ± 0.002
T3	0.025 ± 0.004	0.164 ± 0.005	0.025 ± 0.004	0.055 ± 0.004
T4	0.071 ± 0.003	0.175 ± 0.005	0.065 ± 0.005	0.064 ± 0.005
T5	0.036 ± 0.003	0.264 ± 0.005	0.271 ± 0.003	0.077 ± 0.003
Comparison to reports using same method of extraction and assay (Souret 1998)
Local grocer source	0.14 ± 0.01	0.17 ± 0.02	0.12 ± 0.01	0.04 ± 0.01
Soil-grown	0.20 ± 0.04	0.20 ± 0.06	0.18 ± 0.03	0.05 ± 0.02

Control = corms soaked in water for 15 min before sowing, T2 = corms soaked in B. subtilis FZB24 spore solution at 2 g/1000 mL water for 15 min before sowing, T3, T4 and T5 = T2 + corms soil drenched with FZB24 spore solution at 0.2 g/L after 6, 10 or 14 weeks of sowing date, respectively.