Background: This review focuses on characterization of Cyclamen coum Mill. (Myrsinaceae), composition and content of biologically active substances presented in the above-ground and underground parts, reporting use of this plant in traditional medicine, predicting possible pharmacotherapeutic effects. Materials and Methods: Various electronic search engines such as Google, Google scholar, scientific literature, electronic databases such as e-Library, Scopus, Web of Science, Pubmed had been searched and data obtained. Results: Cyclamen L. is classified in the Myrsinaceae family now. It is a typical element of the Mediterranean flora. C. coum. is a species characteristic of the Caucasus and Crimea with rounded leaves and rounded corolla lobes, bright and pink-purple flowers. Chemical composition of biologically active substances of C. coum was described in sufficient detail. C. coum contains saponins (coumoside A, coumoside B, cyclaminorin, deglucocyclamin, cyclacoumin, and mirabilin lactone), sterols (stigmasterol and other related compounds), piperidine alkaloid (2-β-D-glycopyranosyl-2-undecil-3,5-dihydroxy-6-carboxypiperidine), flavonoids, phenols, tannins, cardiac glycosides. Antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor activities are established for different C. coum extracts. Conclusion: C. coum can be used for the production of potential anticancer, antibacterial and antifungal drugs. It should be noted that more pharmacognostic, pharmacological studies are needed for providing further information to use this medicinal plant in the official medicine. Also, standardization procedures for a crude herbal drug should be developed.

Background: In the Russian Federation, the viburnum fruits are used to obtain infusions and syrups as medications. This medicinal herbal raw material contains a large number of biologically active substances: vitamins, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, flavonoids, hydroxycinnamic acids, iridoids, carbohydrates, organic acids, lipids etc. The research aimed to study one of the biologically active substances group responsible for the formation of the organoleptic properties of aqueous extracts-monomeric carbohydrate composition and content. Materials and methods: Dried viburnum (guelder-rose) fruits, an aqueous infusion based on it, and viburnum syrup of industrial manufacture (Russia) were purchased from the pharmacy and prepared for research. For HPLC analysis of monomeric sugars Agilent 1260 Series HPLC system equipped with autosampler/injector, four-channel gradient pump, column thermostat, refractive index detector), software (ChemStation Version B.01), column (Waters Sugar-Pack I, 10 μm, 300 × 6.5 mm) were used. Isocratic elution was performed using purified water (with the addition of Ca-EDTA 0.05 mg/ml) as the mobile phase, at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The column was maintained at 80 °C, the refractive index detector-at 35 °C. The injection volume was 10 μL, analysis time-20 min. Results: The main free carbohydrates of viburnum fruits and preparations based on them are glucose, fructose, and sucrose. The total content of simple sugars in the viburnum fruits is 28.393 ± 0.528%, in the infusion-0.499 ± 0.015%, in the syrup-69.736 ± 1.551%. The characteristic ratio of glucose: fructose: sucrose in dried viburnum fruits is 8.1:5.4:1, in infusion-7.0:5.7:1, and in syrup-9.2:8.8:1. The sugars' degree of passing into infusion is 74.34%. Conclusion: The composition and content of carbohydrates determined by HPLC-RID are an important characteristic data. It can be used for viburnum fruits Russian pharmacopoeial standardization along with the quantifying total content of organic acids.