Correlation between the high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and the sensory analysis based on saffron color, odor, aroma and bitterness

The present work intended to correlate the saffron chemical results obtained by HPLC-DAD, with the results of the sensory analysis conducted in Spain and Tunisia. For that, an aqueous extract of saffron spice was prepared according to the ISO 3632:2011 to determine safranal, crocins and picrocrocin concentrations. First, a correlation was realized among the safranal content and the sum of the values of the odor intensity and aroma sensory attributes. Then, a second correlation between the mean total values related to the color and the crocins concentration was searched. Finally, the third correlation was between the picrocrocin concentration and the value given by tasters to the attribute bitterness. Overall, positive and high correlations were found in this assay and the results were R²=0.8795, R²=0.9559 and R²=0.9627, respectively. Concerning the drafted results, a close relationship was determined among the perception criteria from the sensory analysis and the chemical results while analyzing the different samples from Tunisia and Spain. Such results are important to have an overview on the saffron quality mixing the analytical approach to the sensory analysis.