The medicinal herbs of the Balkan Peninsula are highly represented in traditional medicine. The connection between traditional and modern life and health is reflected in the creation of new food products with added value. In this study, the plant species Sambucus nigra L. was used to obtain freshly pressed juice, whose chemical composition and various biological activities were evaluated. The most abundant compounds were phenolic acids: protocatechuic and chlorogenic acid, as well as flavonoids: quercetin-3-O-hexoside, quercetin, and rutin. The analyzed juice was very rich in total phenolic compounds (1945 mg GAE per mL juice), and a significant anthocyanin concentration was observed (30.85 mg Cy-3-GE per mL juice). Bioactivity testing revealed that elderberry juice was an extremely potent agent in the process of neutralizing NO free radicals (53.06 g TE per L juice), while in reducing over-enzyme activity, the best result was achieved in the inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme (54.70 mg KAE per g of juice).

The majority of essential oils obtained from medicinal plants have been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of different kinds of diseases, and they are increasingly used in the diet. Due to their chemical composition, essential oils are a very interesting product of the secondary metabolism of plants, for both consumers and researchers. Among others, elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) is mostly a woody plant, while it can rarely be found as a herbaceous perennial plant. This plant species has been used in traditional medicine because it is a very rich source of phytochemicals. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the composition of essential oils obtained from flowers and fruits of this plant, collected from the Balkan Peninsula. The oils were obtained using the Clevenger apparatus, and their composition was evaluated by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The oil composition was affected by the part of the plants used: the most abundant bioactive compounds in the essential oil of air-dried elderberry fruits were ?-damascenone (35.70%) and linalyl anthranilate (24.15%). ?-damascenone was the dominant compound in the essential oil of lyophilized elderberry fruits (38.64%), while linalool was detected in the concentration of 32.80%. In the essential oil of air-dried elderflowers, the most abundant compound was carane (13.19%). The essential oils of S. nigra shown substantial chemical composition and could be used as a potential source of natural products in the cosmetics and food industry.

An unbreakable relationship between plants, nutrition, and health has directed researchers to deeply investigate and characterize the biopotential and medicinal properties of traditional foods. The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the phytochemical composition and biological potential of plant extracts with the idea of defining the most potent extracts as a natural source of bioactive molecules and their application in different industries. We evaluated unused plant species Sambucus nigra L. for investigation of bioactivities as potential natural products. Extracts of fresh elderberry fruits were obtained by modern (microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE)) and traditional (maceration (MAC)) extraction techniques, using 50% ethanol (50% EtOH) and water (H₂O) of different polarities. In analyzed extracts, rutin and chlorogenic acid were dominant compounds in both 50% EtOH and H₂O extracts, while ursolic acid was identified in 50% EtOH extracts as a terpenic compound with notable concentration. Elderberry extracts were evaluated regarding antioxidant, neuroprotective, antityrosinase, and antidiabetic abilities: MAE extracts had the best overall activity, and in general, 50% EtOH extracts were more potent than water extracts. The correlation of the dominant compound—rutin with all biological activities, indicates the importance of its presence in elderberries. S. nigra fruits showed excellent biopotential and opened possibilities of creating new food products or remedies, which are not present on the market because elderberry extracts are an exceptional source of rutin, chlorogenic acid, and ursolic acid.

The subject of the review article is the development of rural tourism based on innovative food products. The aim of this paper is to identify key forms of rural entrepreneurial tourism in Vojvodina. Gastronomy plays a significant role in presenting the culture and way of life of a certain area and reflects new trends in tourism-related to authenticity, sustainability, healthy lifestyle, and revival of tradition. The development of rural tourism should be based on efficient investment in the tourist offer through entrepreneurial projects that are in line with modern demand trends, including the production of food products that are gradually appearing on the market. Investing in the tourist offer in rural tourist destinations would affect the growth of income from rural tourism, and thus the economic development of rural areas and the state itself.

The growing production of strawberry-based foods generates large quantities of pomace, a phenolic-rich by-product with high valorization potential. This study aimed to optimize ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of strawberry pomace and to evaluate the bioactivity of the resulting extracts. The greenness assessment using the AGREEprep metric yielded a score of 0.68/1, confirming the environmental friendliness of the process. Under the optimized UAE conditions (20 min, 50 °C, solid-to-liquid ratio 1:20 g/mL), the extract exhibited the highest total phenolic (16.49 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid contents (2.10 mg RE/g). The optimized extract showed strong antioxidant activity, with DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, and FRAP values of 32.70, 46.76, 57.29, and 38.90 mg TE/g, respectively. Enzyme inhibition was particularly pronounced against tyrosinase (55.45 mg KAE/g), while moderate inhibition of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase was also observed. Artificial neural network (ANN) modeling demonstrated excellent predictive performance (R² > 0.99) and enabled effective optimization of extraction parameters. These findings confirm UAE as an efficient and sustainable approach for strawberry pomace valorization and highlight ANN-based optimization as a robust tool for developing multifunctional bioactive extracts for food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications.