In this study, a new spectrophotometric method for the determination of sunset yellow in adulterated Saffron without pre-separation has been developed.It was found that a second order spectra data matrix of Sunset yellowconstructed from thesolvent components gradual change–visible absorption spectra can be expressed as thecombination of two bilinear data matrices. With the bilinear model, the second order spectra data of mixtures containing Sunset yellow coexist with interferents (red pigments of Saffron) could be analyzed using the second order calibration algorithms.The algorithm used here was rank annihilation factor analysis.In the method investigated here, the components of the solvent were changed gradually byadding 1,4-Dioxane into water,subsequently, the absorption spectra of Sunset yellow and Saffron samples in aseries of 1,4-Dioxane –water mixed solvents, wererecorded. Thus, the concentration of Sunset yellow in a gray system could be determined fromthe spectra matrices using second order calibration algorithms.This method is simple, convenient and dependable. The method has been successfully used for analysis of Sunset yellow in adulterated Saffron with satisfactory results.

Keywords