New diagnostic spray reagents for detecting precarthamin in aqueous extracts from dyer's saffron flowers

Potassium permanganate and hydrogen peroxide were found to be useful chromo-specific spray reagents for detecting precarthamin on air-dried chromatograms. Upon spraying them at relatively low levels, a royal red colour developed almost instantly without perceptible effect from traces of organic solvents on the chromatograms. The data proved that potassium permanganate is superior to hydrogen peroxide in its efficacy.