A contribution to nutritional studies on Crocus sativus flowers and their value as food

Abstract

About 68 kg of flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of saffron spice, while 63 kg of bio-residues composed of tepals, stamens and styles are generated. The proximate composition, minerals, dietary fiber (DF), sugars, anions and organic acids of flowers of saffron, their parts and bio-residues from saffron spice production have been analyzed. Whole flowers have high ash (7.39 mg/100 g), protein (10.07 mg/100 g) and available carbohydrates (61.2 mg/100 g), and are low in lipids (3.16 mg/100 g). Stamens are the flower parts with the highest contents of ash (11.43 mg/100 g), protein (24.05 mg/100 g), lipids (10.73 mg/100 g), total DF (32.2 mg/100 g) and insoluble DF (21.1 mg/100 g), and the lowest available carbohydrates (33.8 mg/100 g) and total sugars (4.3 mg/100 g). The insoluble/soluble DF ratios of floral bio-residues (1.2), stamens (1.9) and stigmas (1.3) are suitable as a balanced source of DF. These results could contribute to the using flowers of saffron as food, as well as the development of new food products from flowers of saffron and the management and exploitation of the bio-residues obtained in saffron spice production.