. 2013 Jun 18;52(2):813–821. doi: 10.1007/s13197-013-1058-z

Table 1.

Effect of extraction time on instrumental color properties of saffron tepals extracted with acidified ethanol and sulfur (after partial desulfurization (less than 250 ppm)) water solutions (the numbers in this table are averaged of three replicates and values with different superscripts in each column are significantly (α = 0.05) different)

Extraction time	Chroma = (a² + b²)^0.5		Lightness		Hue
(min)	Ethanol	Sulfur	Ethanol	Sulfur	Ethanol	Sulfur
20	39.2 ± 0.4^a	63.0 ± 0.5^a	12.8 ± 0.7^a	16.9 ± 0.6^a	38.4 ± 0.8^a	38.5 ± 0.7^a
40	39.8 ± 0.8^b	63.8 ± 0.4^a	12.7 ± 0.7^a	16.5 ± 0.5^a	37.4 ± 0.6^a	38.7 ± 0.6^a
60	40.4 ± 1.1^c	65.8 ± 0.2^b	16.2 ± 0.9^b	16.2 ± 0.1^b	40.3 ± 1.3^b	38.8 ± 0.8^a
120	41.3 ± 1.2^c	65.6 ± 0.2^b	19.6 ± 1.1^c	16.2 ± 0.2^b	44.5 ± 1.6^c	38.9 ± 0.9^a
180	41.1 ± 1.1^c	64.6 ± 0.1^b	22.6 ± 1.2^c	16.2 ± 0.2^b	48.2 ± 1.9^d	38.9 ± 0.7^a
CD^a or (R²)	0.78	0.22	0.96	0.52	0.96	0.71

^aCoefficient of determination between extraction time and instrumental color properties