The Effect of Ethanol –Water Mixture on Ultrasonic Extraction of Crocin from Saffron

Saffron (Crocus sativus L) is an important medicinal plant cultivated in different parts of Iran especially Razavi and South Khorasan provinces and because of its high price considered as one of the important Iranian products for export. Saffron extract is rich source of phyto chemicals with antioxidant properties and used in traditional and modern medicine. Crocin is one of the natural carotenoid in saffron extract which recently used in pharmaceutical formulations for treatment of depression. In regard to significance of phyto chemicals and bioactive compounds in saffron extract and specially crocin, in this study, a convenient and practical solvent extraction method has been examined for extraction of crocin and bioactive compounds from saffron. For this purpose, at different ethanol-water volume ratios 0-100, 25-75, 50-50, 75-25 and 100-0, the ultrasonic extraction of bioactive compounds and crocin has been achieved. UV-Vis spectra at max of 445 nm was used for absorbance measurements and least square curve fitting applied for determination of crocin concentrations in extracted samples. The results obtained at different ethanol-water volume ratios and the stability of the solutions studied after three days. Ethanol-water with composition of 50:50 (v/v) was selected as the optimum ratio for the extraction of crocin from saffron.