„Sambucus nigra“ and „Sambucus racemosa“ fruit: a schematic review on chemical characterization

Elderberry is a plant which parts are used for healing purposes. It is rich in polyphenolic compounds (anthocyanins, flavonols, phenolic acids, proanthocyanidins). Black elderberry is the most characterized of all elderberry types. In this paper, the emphasis is on published results about the fruit of black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), as well as different cultivars within these species. The first step in chemical analysis of a plant material is the extraction. It is important to choose the appropriate extraction technique and solvent(s) for the extraction. Spectrophotometric methods enable the determination of total phenol content, total monomeric anthocyanin content, antioxidant activity (ABTS ˙ +, DPPH˙, TEAC, β-carotene / linoleic acid assays). High performance liquid chromatography technique combined with appropriate detectors (for carbohydrates and organic acids: HPLC-PDA; for individual phenolic compounds: HPLC-DAD-MS, HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS-MS; for individual anthocyanins: HPLC-DAD–, HPLC-MS-MS, HPLC-UV-MS-MS, HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS, HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS-MS; for proanthocyanins: HPLC-ESI-MS-MS) provides the results about chemical composition, which were determined. Differences in chemical composition are evident between black and red elderberry, and less within different cultivars of the same species. Values for the total anthocyanin content obtained by using the HPLC method are two or more times higher than those obtained spectrophotometrically. The same can be said for the results for phenolic compounds. Elderberry fruit should be more commercialized since the chemical composition makes it a source of a cosmetically active substances.