High-Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonace (NMR) in solution also combined with multivariate statistical analysis to determine the quality and authenticity of saffron. Particularly the content of components (metabolites) is evaluated. The analysis allows to detect frauds with synthetic colorants (Sudan I-IV, tratrazine, sunset yellow) or bioadulterants (Gardenia jasminoides fruit extracts, Crocus sativus stamens, turmeric, safflower), to evaluate the freshness of saffron, to differentiate the Italian PDO saffron from commercial ones, as well as to differentiate the geographical origin of saffron samples harvested in the same year.
The proposed method allows to monitor different classes of chemical compounds within a single experiment, obtaining a metabolic profile of saffron extracts analyzed. This allows to monitor within a single experiment the presence of different adulterants or bioadulterants. Moreover, our database includes several saffron samples from different geographical origins and stored from 0 to 14 years, that allows to evaluate the freshness of saffron regardless its provenance.