Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) is a medicinal plant that graces many gardens and forest glades. Since ancient times, the flowers have been used for the preparation of various drinks and for medicinal purposes. It is known that the phenolic substances have many benefits for human health, and their concentration in food products depends on the recipe according to which it is prepared. We prepared 6 different elderflower extracts (70 % ethanol, sabesa, liqueur, tea, syrup, vinegar) and determined the content of
phenolic compounds in the prepared beverages using HPLC-MS. The content of phenolics was expressed in mg/100 ml of the beverage and the dry weight basis in mg/100 g of the dried flowers (DW). We identified 27 phenolic substances in elderflower extracts, of which 11 are representatives of the group of hydroxycinnamic acids, 2 are flavanols, 11 are flavonols, and 3 are flavanones. The highest content in
elderflower extracts were hydroxycinnamic acids (62.32 %), followed by flavonols (32 %), and the lowest was flavanones (2.47 %) and flavanols (1.75 %). Chlorogenic acid, quercetin-3-rutinoside, neochlorogenic acid, isorhamnetin-3-rutinoside, naringenin hexoside 2, 3-feruloylquinic acid stand out for their high content in elderberry extracts.
The highest content of analyzed hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols was found in tea, followed by syrup. The following contents of total phenolics were determined in beverages: control (1.69 mg/100 ml), sabesa (5.03 mg/100 ml), liquor (8.32 mg/100 ml) and tea (44.7 mg/100 ml). Flavanones were not determined in syrup, sabesa, and tea, and no flavanols were detected in sabesa.
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