## 3 Results and Discussion
### Volatile Composition  
The evaluation of volatiles is an important aspect that contributes to the aroma of foods. Furthermore, volatile secondary metabolites also present important bioactive properties, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities [31]. The results of the volatile composition of saffron stigmas from Spain, Iran, and Greece are shown in Table 4. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**(A)** & **SFL1** & **SFL2** & **(B)** & **Spanish Stigmas** & **Iranian Stigmas** & **Greek Stigmas** \\ \hline L* & 32.29 \(\pm\) 0.16a & 30.94 \(\pm\) 0.24b & L* & 29.64 \(\pm\) 0.12a & 28.86 \(\pm\) 0.18b & 29.54 \(\pm\) 0.15a \\ a* & 3.41 \(\pm\) 0.13b & 4.45 \(\pm\) 0.11a & a* & 10.69 \(\pm\) 0.01a & 9.26 \(\pm\) 0.17b & 10.60 \(\pm\) 0.10a \\ b* & \(-1.63\pm\) 0.25a & \(-4.77\pm\) 0.14b & b* & 5.80 \(\pm\) 0.13a & 4.56 \(\pm\) 0.09b & 5.72 \(\pm\) 0.16a \\ \(h\) (\({}^{\circ}\)) & 334.50 \(\pm\) 2.46a & 313.00 \(\pm\) 0.19b & \(h\) (\({}^{\circ}\)) & 28.47 \(\pm\) 0.34a & 26.23 \(\pm\) 0.25b & 28.38 \(\pm\) 0.41a \\ C* & 3.78 \(\pm\) 0.22b & 6.53 \(\pm\) 0.18a & C* & 12.16 \(\pm\) 0.15a & 10.32 \(\pm\) 0.19b & 12.05 \(\pm\) 0.25a \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* \({}^{1}\) Mears \(\pm\) standard deviation in the same line followed by different lowercase letters indicate statistically significant differences at \(p\leq 0.05\) for each sample (\(n=3\)). SFL1, SFL2: Saffron floral by-products from two different producers.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Color parameters of the powdered saffron floral by-products (**A**) and saffron stigmas (**B**) \({}^{1}\). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Code** & **Compound** & **CF** & **RT** & **KI** & **KI** & **Spanish** & **Imanian Stigmas** & **Greek** & **Stigmas** & **Odor Descriptors**2 \\  & & & & **(EXP)** & **(LTT)** & **Signings** & **(log/g)** & **(log/g)** & **(log/g)** & **(log/g)** & **(log/g)** \\ \hline V1 & Acetic acid & Organic acid & 2.422 & 645 & 646 & 646 & 8.30x & 40.40x & 38.80x & Fragment, source, vinegar \\ V2 & 1-Butanan, 3-methyl- (isoamyl alcohol) & Alcohol & 5.445 & 744 & 750 & 315 & 770 & 1018 & Alcoholic, whiskary, family, banana \\ V3 & Cyclopentance & Ketome & 6.770 & 774 & 767 & 2.01x & 0.6x & 1.6x & Murgy \\ V4 & 261p-France & Ester & 12.27 & 903 & 913 & 173a & 12 xb & 63.50x & Swept, fruits, banana \\ V5 & & Ester & 16.070 & 1012 & 1012 & 3.62c & 10.10x & 9.40x & Swept, fruits, banana \\ V6 & 3-Cyclohexins-1-one, 35-dimethyl- (beta involophores) & Ketome & 17.041 & 1040 & 1044 & 5.40x & 7.60x & 80.52c & Wood, swept, employees, \\ V7 & Linalol & Terpine & 19.026 & 1008 & 1098 & 5.50x & 3.97b & 5.20x & 61.6x &  
In all saffron samples, a total of 25 different volatile compounds were identified and quantified, with the more representative chemical families, ketones (\(n=8\)), terpenes (\(n=8\)), aldehydes (\(n=3\)), esters (\(n=3\)), alcohols (\(n=2\)) and acids (\(n=1\)). Regarding the concentration of the different volatile compounds, there were significant differences between the samples, except for safranal (1,3-Cyclohexadiene-1-carboxaldehyde, 2,6,6-trimethyl-, V16) which was the compound found in a higher amount in all the samples regardless of the saffron origin (7443, 7656 and 7429 \(\mu\)g/g for Spanish, Iranian and Greek saffron, respectively). The concentrations of safranal were higher than those reported by other studies. [PERSON] et al. [32] indicated maximum values of safranal in Greek saffron around 6879 \(\mu\)g/g, [PERSON] et al. [33] found 1365 \(\pm\) 81.9 \(\mu\)g/g in Spanish saffron, and [PERSON] et al. [34] showed values of 4356 \(\mu\)g/g for Iranian samples. These differences could be due to the post-harvest processing, such as the dehydration procedures since safranal is formed at elevated temperatures from picrocroccin (50-55 \({}^{\circ}\)C), but after this process, safranal could still be generated via _trans_-croccin esters from other volatile compounds [4].