The European Parliament and Council Directive on Sweeteners for Use in Foodstuffs was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities in September 1994. Provision has been made in this Directive to include neohesperidine dihydrochalkone (Citrosa(R)) as one of the six potent sweeteners which will be permitted, once this Directive will be implemented into Member States legislation.Neohesperidin dihydrochalkone is not a usual sweetener. Its taste profile is characterized by a lingering cooling aftertaste, thus helping to mask the bitter -or in general unpleasant-taste of many pharmaceutical active ingredients.

A preparative HPLC procedure to isolate picrocrocin, the compound responsible for the taste of saffron and precursor of the aromatic safranal, and the mixture of yellow pigments from a saffron hydroalcoholic extract has been developed. A reversed-phase C18 column was employed as the stationary phase. The best separation was obtained with 45% methanol, plus a 90% acetonitrile pulse 3 min after starting the run, as mobile phase. To obtain the highest yield from the system, sample size was increased up to 2 ml of 200 mg ml−1 saffron extract; under such conditions a good resolution was obtained and picrocrocin and saffron pigments were separated with a high purification yield and purity.