부산대학교 도서관

Saffron is the stigma of Crocus sativus L. and widely used as a spice and a crude drug. Because the price of saffron is very high, it suffers from various adulterations including coloration with synthetic dyes. In the Japanese Pharmacopoeia 17th edition (JP17), a purity test for aniline dyes is described for saffron. However, the target aniline dyes are not specified, and chloroform, a hazardous solvent which can be used only if no alternative method is available in newly listed JP monographs, is used in this test. Therefore, a new method using thin layer chromatography (TLC) to replace the purity test was examined. From a literature search for the synthetic pigments which were reported to be detected from saffron, five pigments, sudan III (1), sudan red G (2), methyl orange (3), auramine (4) and sunset yellow FCF (5), were selected as target pigments. In addition, tartrazine (6) and naphthol yellow (7), which are used in the purity test of saffron in European Pharmacopoeia, were also included as target pigments. TLC conditions to separate these pigments from the yellow pigments (crocins) contained in saffron, together with suitable detection methods to distinguish the synthetic dyes from crocins, were investigated and a TLC method suitable to replace the current purity test of saffron for aniline dyes in JP was established. In addition, as three yellow spots of crocins are clearly observed under this condition, this TLC method was also suitable for an identification test of saffron for JP.