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.

There has been lately a phenomenal rise in the use of natural dyes in different areas, although the principal problem with these natural dyes is their high cost for the production. The main idea of this study is to convert the waste of saffron flower to an eco-friendly natural colorant for sustainable textile coloration of wool fabric. This work studies the stability of saffron flower extract (SFE) by UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry, the use of mordants, and the color fastness of wool fabric dyed. SFE has good thermal and pH stability under acidic conditions; it would be suitable for textile dyeing processes. The optimized dyeing conditions such as: dye concentration of 6 % for direct dyeing and 2 % for mordant dyeing (dyeing in the presence of mordant), pH value of 3, dyeing temperature of 90 °C, and dyeing time of 60 min are obtained for better dyeing performance of wool with about 60 % bath exhaustion rate after pre-mordanting. A range of colors from brown to green are obtained with good fastness to washing, wet and dry rubbing, acid and alkaline perspiration, and an acceptable color fastness to light. In general, the abundantly available agricultural by-product SFE has considerable potential to be utilized as a natural textile dyestuff.

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