Preliminary chemical studies on Sambucus nigra fruits growing in Turkey

Sambucus nigra L. (Caprifoliaceae) is shrub or small tree which is distributed in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is widely used in Europe. Both fruits and inflorescenses are used as herbal tea for cough, colds and flu. The fruits are also used as a natural dye in fruit juices, wines and jams. Anthocyanin rich fruits have various biological effects such as antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer and antiviral. Studies on S. nigra in Turkey are quite insufficient.In this present study, the fruits were macerated using different solvents and the fruits tea was prepared according to folk use. All extracts were subjected to chromatographic and spectrophotometric analyses for their chemical compositions. The fruit seeds were extracted with n-hexane using a Soxhlet apparatus. The methyl esters of fatty acids prepared from fixed oil were analyzed by GC and GC/MS, simultaneously. The volatile compounds obtained by microdistillation of dried fruits and the glycosidic bound volatiles obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis were analyzed by GC and GC/MS, simultaneously.In conclusion, the 70% ethanol extract was found to be rich in anthocyanins and cyanidin-3-glycoside when compared with other extracts.Linoleic acid (42.3%) and linolenic acid (38% ) were major fatty acids of the fixed oil obtained from seeds.Microdistilled oil yielded 34 volatile constituents comprising 86.1% of the sample with phenylacetaldehyde (32.8%) and benzaldehyde (7.9%) as major compounds.The sample obtained by hydrodistillation were found to be rich in fatty acids such as hexadecanoic acid (36.1%) and tetradecanoic acid (11.4%). Hydrodistilled oil of the fruits after enzymatic hydrolysis comprised hexadecanoic acid (36.1%), ethyl linoleate (11.6%) and ethyl hexadecanoate (10%) as major compounds. These results showed that aroma composition of the fruits comprised fatty acids, fatty acid esters, aldehydes, alcohols and terpenes.