## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Properties, Bioactive Content and Iron (II) Chelating Activity
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline  & **SFL1** & **SFL2** & **Spanish Stigmas** & **Iranian Stigmas** & **Greek Stigmas** \\ \hline DPPH 2 & 98.82 \(\pm\) 4.79d & 107.40 \(\pm\) 1.95d & 201.27 \(\pm\) 7.71b & 278.92 \(\pm\) 8.37a & 145.58 \(\pm\) 21.98c \\ ABTS 2 & 50.99 \(\pm\) 2.51c & 48.41 \(\pm\) 4.67c & 110.88 \(\pm\) 9.99b & 142.22 \(\pm\) 5.23a & 124.95 \(\pm\) 27.44 ab \\ FRAP 2 & 1250 \(\pm\) 88b & 1181 \(\pm\) 26b & 3667 \(\pm\) 319a & 3471 \(\pm\) 123a & 3445 \(\pm\) 274a \\ \hline TPC 3 & 32.42 \(\pm\) 6.90b & 32.82 \(\pm\) 2.23b & 44.80 \(\pm\) 2.30a & 36.35 \(\pm\) 3.47b & 34.00 \(\pm\) 3.22b \\ TPC 4 & 3.99 \(\pm\) 0.79b & 5.37 \(\pm\) 0.19b & 18.74 \(\pm\) 1.22a & 15.32 \(\pm\) 1.73a & 17.39 \(\pm\) 4.14a \\ TAC 5 & 39.17 \(\pm\) 2.98b & 69.02 \(\pm\) 4.34a & n.d. & n.d. & n.d. \\ \hline TBC 6 & 28.39 \(\pm\) 2.17c & 39.59 \(\pm\) 1.47c & 77.51 \(\pm\) 14.93 ab & 71.06 \(\pm\) 6.47b & 90.82 \(\pm\) 8.37a \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* Means \(\pm\) 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). 2 The antioxidant capacity is expressed as mmol Troloxic Equivalents (TE) per 100 g dw of sample. 3 The Total Polyphenoids Content (TPC) are expressed as mg Gallic Acid Equivalents (GAE) per 8 dw of sample. 4 The Total Flavocnoids Content (TFC) are expressed as mg of Catechin Equivalents (CE) per 9 dw of sample. 5 The Total Anthocyanin Content (TAC) were expressed in mg of Delphiidin Equivalents (mg DE) per 6 dw of sample. 6 The total beta-carotene is expressed as mg of beta-carotene per 100 g dw of sample (%). SFL1, SFL2: Saffron floral by-products from two different producers; n.d.: not determined.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Antioxidant capacity and bioactive compounds content in saffron floral by-products and stigmas 1. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline  & _trans-4-GG (\% w/\(\it{uv}\))_ & _trans-3-Gg (\% w/\(\it{uv}\))_ & **Total Crocins (\% w/\(\it{uv}\))** \\ \hline SFL1 & 0.009 \(\pm\) 0.002d & 0.034 \(\pm\) 0.005b & 0.042 \(\pm\) 0.007c \\ SFL2 & n.d. & n.d. & - \\ Spanish Stigmas & 11.91 \(\pm\) 0.13a & 5.13 \(\pm\) 0.05a & 17.04 \(\pm\) 0.18a \\ Iranian Stigmas & 9.22 \(\pm\) 0.30c & 3.98 \(\pm\) 0.48a & 13.19 \(\pm\) 0.78b \\ Greek Stigmas & 10.74 \(\pm\) 0.24b & 3.93 \(\pm\) 0.53a & 14.67 \(\pm\) 0.77b \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
* Means \(\pm\) standard deviation in the same column 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; n.d.: not detected.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Crocins in saffron floral by-products and saffron stigmas 1. These results were in accordance with those obtained by [PERSON] et al. (2017), that have reported the quantification of these two crocus (_trans_-4-GG and _trans_-3-Gg) in safron from Italy, Iran, Greece, and Spain by HPLC. Furthermore, the values of Spanish saffron were consistent with the content of crocetin esters reported by [PERSON] et al. (2018), in which these compounds represented 16-28% of the saffron composition. Thus, the level of apocarotonoids may vary because of different geographical origins, processing, and storage conditions. Saffron flowers presented low amounts of total beta-carotene (28-39%) that are mainly located in the yellow stamens. Nevertheless, beta-carotene was reported in higher quantity in other Crocus species such as _C. ancynensis_ also due to the yellow color of the tepals (2018) (Table 1). Moreover, in saffron floral by-products, crocus were only detected in SFL1 but in very low amounts (0.042%) due to the presence of small fragments of stigmas remaining after their detachment (Table 2). However, [PERSON] et al. (2018) reported that crocins in _C. sativus_ saffron floral by-products from Spain were not detected. DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP assays results revealed the different antioxidant activities of saffron and its floral by-products (Table 1).