Organ-Specific Phenolic Specialization and Antioxidant Responses in Crocus cancellatus: LC-MS/MS and Multivariate...

Organ-specific allocation of phenolic metabolites may shape antioxidant responses in Crocus species. This study characterized stamen, pistil, tepal, perigon tube, and corm of Crocus cancellatus Herb. using ultrasound-assisted methanolic extraction, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry with 30 authentic standards, six antioxidant assays, a relative antioxidant capacity index, Pearson correlation analysis, and principal component analysis. Twenty phenolic compounds were quantified. Hesperidin predominated in all organs and was highest in the tepal (17,660 ± 60 μg/g extract), approximately 43-fold above the corm. The pistil contained the highest 3-hydroxybenzoic acid (331 ± 1 μg/g extract) and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (341 ± 2 μg/g extract), whereas the corm was enriched in pinoresinol (60.1 ± 0.8 μg/g extract) and uniquely contained vanillin (16.0 ± 0.6 μg/g extract). The tepal showed the highest total flavonoid content (81.50 ± 0.40 mg RE/g extract), while the stamen had the highest total phenolic content (12.63 ± 0.05 mg GAE/g extract). The corm showed the strongest DPPH radical scavenging (IC₅₀ = 3.96 mg/mL), whereas the pistil led in ABTS and FRAP responses. Principal component analysis explained 64.16% of total variance and separated the five organ profiles. These findings demonstrate organ-specific phenolic specialization and support targeted bioactivity studies.