Preparative high-performance liquid chromatographic purification of saffron secondary metabolites

A preparative HPLC procedure to isolate picrocrocin, the compound responsible for the taste of saffron and precursor of the aromatic safranal, and the mixture of yellow pigments from a saffron hydroalcoholic extract has been developed. A reversed-phase C18 column was employed as the stationary phase. The best separation was obtained with 45% methanol, plus a 90% acetonitrile pulse 3 min after starting the run, as mobile phase. To obtain the highest yield from the system, sample size was increased up to 2 ml of 200 mg ml−1 saffron extract; under such conditions a good resolution was obtained and picrocrocin and saffron pigments were separated with a high purification yield and purity.