Traditional Elderflower Beverages: A Rich Source of Phenolic Compounds with High Antioxidant Activity

Abstract

Traditional elderflower beverages are very popular due to their pleasing taste and pro-health properties. Phenolics were quantified in three elderflower extracts (methanolic extraction and two water extracts prepared as fresh drinks according to local recipes) with HPLC-MS. Chromatographic patterns of methanolic and water extracts were quite similar; however, content levels of individual compounds differed between the two extraction solvents. Two feruloylquinic acids and two p-coumaroyl-caffeoylquinic acids and different flavonol glycosides have been identified in elderflowers for the first time. Hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonol glycosides were the major phenolic constituents in elderflowers. Methanolic extract contained higher levels of all phenolic groups compared to water-extracted samples. The yield of elderflower extracts depended on extract solution and time of extraction. Elderflower beverages were characterized by high total phenolic content (91.09 to 746.63 mg GAE/L). The results confirmed that elderflower beverages (sabesa, syrup) should be recommended as a good source of phenolics in human diet.

Elderberry and Elderflower Extracts, Phenolic Compounds, and Metabolites and Their Effect on Complement, RAW 264.7 Macrophages and Dendritic Cells

“…1 H and 13 C NMR analyses of the EtOH elderberry and elderflower extracts showed signals from aromatic compounds, organic acids, and carbohydrates. The 96% EtOH elderflower extract showed signals which could be attributed to rutin [18] and caffeoyl moieties [19], structures previously reported to be major constituents in the elderflowers [20]. From the acidic elderberry MeOH extract (800 g), cyanidin-3-glucoside (340 mg, 0.043% yield) and cyanidin-3-sambubioside (250 mg, 0.031% yield), the major anthocyanins in elderberry, were isolated, in addition to the aglycone cyanidin (270 mg, 0.034% yield).…”

Structure–activity relationship of immunomodulating pectins from elderberries

“…The EtOH and the acidic MeOH extract from elderberries possessed stronger DPPH-radical scavenging activity compared to the water extracts. Alcohol extracts from the elderberries and the elderflowers have been reported high antioxidant activity in DPPH assay, ABTS scavenging assay, FRAP assay and ORAC assay [5,125,[149][150][151]. In paper V, isolated anthocyanins and procyanidins from elderberries were shown to have a strong radical scavenging activity.…”

Determination of shelf life of Chelidonium majus, Sambucus nigra, Thymus vulgaris and Thymus serpyllum herbal tinctures by various stability-indicating tests

“…An example of the chromatogram obtained by direct injection of diluted Chelidonium majus tincture is shown in Figure 2. The calibration parameters for the quantified compound chelidonine are given in Table 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 12 The technique of choice for flavonoid compounds is HPLC with either spectrophotometric or mass-spectrometric detection (Dawidowicz et al, 2006;Mikulic-Petkovsek et al, 2015).…”

“…The active constituents are presumably hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonol glycosides (Dawidowicz et al, 2006;Mikulic-Petkovsek et al, 2015). One of the most abundant glycosides, isoquercitrin, has been shown to inhibit histamine release from mast cells (Matsumoto et al, 2009) and to exert an anti-inflammatory effect in an asthma model (Rogerio et al, 2007).…”