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. 2016 Mar 11;21(3):343. doi: 10.3390/molecules21030343

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Comparison of the different coloring properties of true and adulterated saffron samples. (A) Different staining capacity of the same amount of true saffron powder (true saffron from Spain) compared to adulterated powders and stigmas. The color of true saffron is clearly less intense than the color of the two adulterated powders (AD.01.JM and AD.13.JM) and more or less similar to the color of the adulterated stigmas. The coloring properties of powder are stronger than the properties of stigmas. The fact that the color intensity of true saffron and stigmas is similar is a consequence of the adulteration of stigmas; (B) Different staining capacity of the same amount of true saffron (Jahan saffron, from Iran, and Azafrán de La Mancha DO (Denominación de origen), from Spain) and adulterated saffron (AD.02.JM and AD.12.JM) stigmas. It is evident that true saffron has less staining capacity than adulterated saffron in cold water. The latter samples probably release some synthetic dye; (C) Different staining capacity of the same amount of true saffron powder (true saffron from Spain), a commercial sample (commercial saffron from Spain) and the two adulterated samples used in this work. At the same time, adulterated and commercial samples produced a stronger coloration of water than true saffron.