Lorin ali ahmad^1*

1 Tartous Research Center, General Commission for Scientific Agriculture Research (GCSAR), Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Lorin ali ahmad, Email: Lorin.ali55@ymail.com.).

Received: 24/ 10/ 2025      Accepted: 12/ 1/ 2026

Abstract

This research aimed to prepare aqueous and ethanolic extracts of cultivated saffron stigmas (Crocus sativus L.) and to determine their phenolic, flavonoid content and antioxidant activity using the DPPH method. The results showed that the ethanolic extract significantly outperformed the aqueous extract in phenolic content (7.16 mg. g⁻¹ and 4.6 mg. g⁻¹, respectively) and in flavonoid content (4.60 mg. g⁻¹ and 3.57 mg. g⁻¹, respectively). The results also showed that the ability to inhibit the DPPH radical increased significantly with increasing concentration of the prepared extract. The ethanolic extract significantly outperformed the aqueous extract in the percentage of inhibition, reaching 67.54% at a concentration of 0.4 mg. g-1 in the ethanolic extract and 63.6% at a concentration of 0.4 mg. g-1 in the aqueous extract. The IC50 values for each were 0.033 and 0.057 mg. g-1, respectively.

Keywords: saffron, phenols, stigma, antioxidant.

 Full paper in Arabic: PDF