Purpose After being considered as a neglected product, agricultural waste is nowadays considered of paramount importance. It has become a source of many chemical compounds with industrial, pharmaceutical, and food applications. This study aims to evaluate the primary phytochemical content, the antioxidant properties, and the antimicrobial activities of different extracts of saffron flower waste (SFE) against bacterial and fungal strains involved in diverse pathologies in southern Morocco. Methods Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined. The antioxidant potentials were assessed by DPPH, FRAP, and β-carotene assays. The antimicrobial activity against four bacteria and four fungi was also evaluated. The findings in terms of the relationships between phytochemical content and all activities were depicted by PCA analyses. Results SFEs contained large amounts of phenolic and flavonoid compounds that contribute to the significant antioxidant activities. Diethyl ether (DE), n-Butanol (n-B), and Ethyl acetate (EA) fractions respectively exhibited more DPPH scavenging capacity, FRAP reducing power, and β-carotene bleaching inhibition. DE and EA have a remarkable effect mainly against Staphylococcus aureus strain, compared to Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Both SFEs showed antifungal antagonism towards key fungi species involved in post-harvest mold and crop yield losses. Botrytis cinerea was more susceptible than Fusarium solani, Penicillium expansum, and Penicillium digitatum. Conclusion These results reveal new data about extracts obtained from SFE that could be a potential source of natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents opening new possibilities for their applications in the food system as a natural preservative and a sustainable alternative to conventional ingredients.

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Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is an autumnal herbaceous triploid plant; it is the source of saffron spice, recognized as the most expensive spice in the world. In this study, genetic diversity among 14 saffron accessions collected from different ancestral geographic areas in Morocco, Greece and France, has been assessed using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) markers system. Ten ISSR primers were amplified, a total of 143 fragments of which 44.05 % are polymorphic with an average of 6.3 polymorphic fragments per each primer and average of polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.236. ISSR markers proved to be a powerful tool for assessment of genetic diversity among saffron accessions. Cluster analysis using unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA), based on Jaccard’s similarity coefficient and supported by the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), divided the studied accessions into three major groups, and showed that genetic distance is independent of geographical distance. In this paper, we report for the first time the level of genetic diversity among Moroccan saffron; this information allows an unequivocal development of a suitable approach for the conservation of C. sativus germplasm and reduce its genetic erosion.