A study of the chemical composition of essential oil and CO 2 extracts of the middle and upper leaf positions of the oriental tobacco Prilep was performed using GC and GC-MS. The major constituents were: in the essential oil, neophytadiene and solanone; in CO 2 extract I, neophytadiene; and in CO 2 extract II, nicotine, nonacosane and solanesol. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oil and CO 2 extracts were investigated against the microorganisms: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results showed that oil from the middle leaves showed greater activity than the oil of the upper leaves. Both leaf oils mainly showed greater activity than CO 2 extracts.

The copper production in Bor (East Serbia) during the last 100 years presents an important source of the pollution of environment. Dust, waste waters, tailing, and air pollutants influence the quality of soil, water, and air. Over 2,000 ha of fertile soil have been damaged by the flotation tailing from Bor's facilities. The goal of the present work has been to determine the content of Pb, Cu, and Fe in wild plants (17 species) naturally growing in the damaged soil and in fodder crops (nine species) planted at the same place. The content of Pb, Cu, and Fe has been analyzed in damaged soil as well. This study has also searched for native (wild) and cultivated plants which are able to grow in contaminated soil in the area of the intense industrial activity of copper production in Bor, which means that they can accumulate and tolerate heavy metals in their above-ground tissues. It has been found out that the content of all metals in contaminated soil decreases considerably at the end of the experiment. As it has been expected, all plant species could accumulate investigated metals. All tested plants, both wild-growing and cultivated plants, seem to be quite healthy on the substrate which contained extremely high concentrations of copper.

The aim of this work was to determine the content of 22 macro- and microelements in ten raw Serbian propolis samples which differ in geographical and botanical origin as well as in polluted agent contents by atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES). The macroelements were more common and present Ca content was the highest while Na content the lowest. Among the studied essential trace elements Fe was the most common element. The levels of toxic elements (Pb, Cd, As and Hg) were also analyzed, since they were possible environmental contaminants that could be transferred into propolis products for human consumption. As and Hg were not detected in any of the analyzed samples but a high level of Pb (2.0-9.7 mg/kg) was detected and only selected portions of raw propolis could be used to produce natural medicines and dietary supplements for humans. Obtained results were statistically analyzed, and the examined samples showed a wide range of element content.

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