Standardised Saffron Extract Capsules

Saffron is the dried stigma of Crocus sativus L., an Iridaceae geophyte, and it is the most expensive botanical in the food chain by weight, which is exactly why the specification has to be tight. Our capsule is filled with a hydro-alcoholic stigma extract, native drug-to-extract ratio of roughly 1:1 to 4:1, spray dried and standardised to not less than 3.0% crocins by HPLC, reported against crocin-1 (C44H64O24, MW 977.0), and not less than 0.3% safranal (CAS 116-26-7, C10H14O, MW 150.22). Picrocrocin is reported for information. Those three markers are the same triad that ISO 3632-1 uses to grade the raw stigma by spectrophotometry, where Category I requires a colouring strength of at least 190 at about 440 nm, picrocrocin at least 70 at about 257 nm and safranal between 20 and 50 at about 330 nm. We buy Category I stigma and then re-verify the extract by HPLC, because the ISO absorbance method reads colour and cannot by itself distinguish a genuine crocin from an added dye. Adulteration is the commercial risk that defines this trade, and the screening panel reflects it. Every lot is fingerprinted by HPLC and HPTLC and screened for the synthetic dyes used to fake colouring strength - Sudan I to IV, tartrazine and methyl orange - while safflower florets, marigold petals, turmeric and dyed maize silk are picked up by microscopy and, where a buyer wants it, DNA identification. Origin can be Indian Kashmir stigma from the Pampore karewas, which carries a Geographical Indication registered in 2020, or imported Iranian stigma where volume and price dominate; the two are not interchangeable on cost and we declare which was used on the certificate of analysis rather than leaving it to the label. Fill weight is 20 mg or 30 mg of extract per capsule. Twenty milligrams is the load most frequently used in published human intake studies of saffron and is the de facto anchor for commercial finished dose. The shell is HPMC with microcrystalline cellulose as the bulking agent, so the article is vegan and vegetarian with no gelatin and no titanium dioxide. Buyers should plan label wording carefully: saffron holds no authorised EU health claim, and botanical entries remain on hold under Article 28(5) and 28(6) of Reg. (EC) 1924/2006, so permitted wording differs materially between the EU, the UK, the US and the Gulf. We supply the specification, CoA, residual solvent data, allergen and origin statements and stability data, and will run buyer-nominated third-party verification before shipment.