Saffron Agronomy and Technology
In collaboration Iranian Medicinal Plants Society

detection of different types of Iranian saffron using fourier transform spectroscopy and chemometric methods

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Amir Kazemi 1
Asghar Mahmoudi 2

1 PhD student, Department of biosystem engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Professor, Department of biosystem engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

10.22048/jsat.2026.565009.1582
Abstract
Saffron is a spice produced from the dried stigmas of the flower Crocus sativus L and is the most expensive spice in the world. Therefore, this product is frequently subject to adulteration and mislabeling. In the local Iranian market, saffron is classified into three main types—Sargol, Negin, and Pushal—based on the cutting position of the stigma, and their quality characteristics and prices vary according to the type. Consequently, the identification of saffron types is of great importance from both qualitative and economic perspectives.

In the present study, the combination of Fourier Transform Mid-Infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy and chemometric methods was employed to classify different types of Iranian saffron. Various spectral preprocessing methods were applied to correct the spectral data, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used as an unsupervised model, while Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) with linear and quadratic kernels was applied as a supervised classification model. The best result was achieved using SG + D2 + MSC preprocessing and the linear kernel of the LDA model, yielding a prediction accuracy of 88.88% for the classification of the three saffron types. The acceptable results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for the non-destructive identification of different types of Iranian saffron.

Keywords

saffron
non-destructive
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
LDA
chemometrics
Subjects

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