Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa L.) is commonly used in food industry and phytotherapy. The contents of phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins and antioxidative activity in extracts of blackthorn fruit were determined using spectrophotometric methods. The content of total phenol compounds varies from 15.33 to 20.94 mg GAE g -1 of fresh fruit. The content of total flavonoids is very low and ranges from 0.419 to 1.31 mg QE g -1 of fresh fruits. Anthocyanins content lies between 0.112 mg cyanidin 3-glucoside/g of fresh sample in ethanol extract and 0.265 mg of cyanidin 3-glucoside g -1 of fresh blackthorn fruit in methanolwater 50/50 (V/V) extract. The differences in total phenol compounds content depend on used extraction medium as a consequence of different polarity of used organic solvents and their mixtures, which selectively extract individual compounds. All explored extracts exhibited strong scavenging activity against DPPH radicals, which ranges from 32.05 to 89.10%. Phenolic acids (neochlorogenic and caffeic acids), flavonoids (quercetin and myricetin) and anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside and peonidin-3--O-glucoside) were identified in investigated ethanol extracts by HPLC analysis. Ethanol extract shows significant antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027 and Salmonella abony NCTC 6017 and antifungal activity against Candida albicans ATCC 10231. Blackthorn fruit extract exhibits a high phenolic content and a high antioxidant activity, and can be used as an antioxidant in food and pharmaceutical industries.

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Insoluble triticale fibre could therefore be used as a supplement to produce functional yoghurt. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

The antioxidant activities of methanol and ethanol (10%, 30%, 50% and 96%) extracts of the aerial parts of Melittis melissophyllum L. were determined by DPP H, ABTS and FRAP assays. The content of flavonoids and phenols was also investigated. The total phenolic content in the extracts was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu assay; their amounts ranged between 63.5 and 111.7 mg GAeqv/g, while the concentrations of flavonoids were from 7.33 to 56.00 mg Queqv/g. IC50 values of the DPP H scavenging effect were from 0.109 to 0.664 mg/mL. The DPP H scavenging effect of the extracts was determined and the obtained IC50 values were from 0.109 to 0.664 mg/mL of solution. The values of ABTS radical activity were from 0.45 to 0.89 mg ascorbic acid/g. The FRAP value was within the range 0.160-0.382 mmol Fe/mg. The obtained values were analyzed by means of multivariate analysis, employing a hierarchical cluster analysis and between-groups linkage. The presented results confirmed that M. melissophyllum possesses good antioxidant properties and may serve as a promising source of natural antioxidants.

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