Background: Kesar or saffron (Crocus sativus ), is known as the most expensive spice in the world and as beneficial for human health due to three main bioactive compounds: crocetin, picrocrocin and safranal. The demand for saffron is increasing worldwide for its interesting role in cuisine, medicine and cosmetics. The therapeutic efficacy of medicines depends on the quality and purity of ingredients used in formulations.
Material and Method: The study samples is been collected and handpicked from Kashmir and other 3 samples were collected from three major markets i.e. Amritsar, Chennai and Mumbai to see the difference on preliminary test like Pharmacognostic screening, physio chemical, Phytochemical and TLC, which are important tools in detecting of adulteration and substitution.
Results and Discussion: The results showed slight difference in microscopic and macroscopic characters in which sample I and sample II (Chennai) showed better quality. In this study total ash value is considerably low in sample I i.e. 0.06gm and sample III i.e. 0.06gm, which may be due to low content of carbonates, phosphates, silicates and silica. Study reveals that alkaloids were not much appreciated in sample II and sample IV. Saponins were not present in sample II. Flavonoids, Tannins, resins and glycosides were absent in sample IV. High amount of flavonoids, tannins, steroids and resins were present in sample I and sample II. High amount of Glycosides were present in sample III. Samples III and IV were not showed good amount of phytochemical which indicates the poor quality of the sample. It might be because of old samples collected or over drying of the samples which loses down many constituents. It could be either collected not from good source. The number of TLC bands found in sample I
were 10 and other sample II, III and IV showed 9, 8 and 18 respectively. Results showed sample II procured from Chennai market found to be equivalent with original and better than other two market samples.
Conclusion: Pharmacognostic, physicochemical and phytochemical methods are established techniques for the quality evaluation of highly valued medicinal plants. Present analytical study done to compare the original sample and market samples helpful in detecting the adulteration and authentication of drug. The preliminary data suggested sample collected from original source was superior in quality and possesses much phytochemicals with this sample II collected from Chennai market showed better quality as compared among other market sample.
Keywords: Kesar; Pharmacognosy; Physio chemical; Phytochemical; TLC.