Viburnum opulus – a new plant for food and pharmaceutical industry

The growing interest in natural food ingredients has been an important factor in expanding the studies of less known plant European cranberry bush Viburnum opulus L. in recent years. Analyzed fruits of V. opulus accumulated large amounts of valuable biologically active substances possessing antioxidant activities. However fruits are very complex of various phytochemicals depending on the different genotype. Antioxidant activity in vitro methods demonstrated that V. opulus var. sargentii possesses the highest antioxidant activity between all investigated cultivars. The LC-MS and on line – DPPH analyses confirmed that V. opulus var. sargentii demonstrated quite different profile then others analysed berry cultivars. The antimicrobial activities of fruit juices and ethanol extracts of V. opulus genotypes were compared in this study. These activities were tested against human pathogenic microorganisms using the agar wells diffusion method. The most effective antibacterial activity was exhibited by the fruit juices against Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella agona, and Lysteria monocytogenes, with inhibition zones of 23.6 mm, 20.7 mm, and 19.1 mm, respectively. Staphylococcus epidermidis and Micrococcus luteus displayed the highest resistance, with minimal inhibition zones of 14.2 mm and 15.0 mm, respectively. The fruit juices showed greater antibacterial activity compared to the ethanol extracts. In contrast, the growth of the yeast cultures exhibited little or no sensitivity to the fruit juices and ethanol extracts. The conclusion of this study is that V. opulus fruits are potential antibacterial and antioxidant remediesBotanikos sodasKTU Maisto institutasKauno technologijos universitetasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta