The Aronia genus (Rosaceae family, Maloideae subfamily) includes two species of native North American shrubs: Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Ell. (black chokeberry) and Aronia arbutifolia (L.) Pers. (red chokeberry). The fruits of A. melanocarpa have been traditionally used by Potawatomi Native Americans to cure colds. In the first half of the 20^th century, cultivars of black chokeberry were introduced to the Soviet Union and other European countries, providing fruits used by food industry. At present, it is used mainly for juice, jam, and wine production, as well as an ornamental plant. Among other substances, the berries of A. melanocarpa contain anthocyanins and procyanidins, possessing strong antioxidative potential. Numerous health-promoting activities—namely, antioxidative, antimutagenic, anticancer, cardioprotective, hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, radioprotective, and immunomodulatory—have been demonstrated for black chokeberry extracts by both in vitro and in in vivo studies. The presented review summarizes the information concerning botany, cultivation, chemical composition, and pharmacological activities of Aronia plants.

Anthocyanins, flavonols, and phenolic acids were estimated in methanolic extracts from the fruits and leaves of three chokeberries—Aronia melanocarpa, Aronia arbutifolia, and Aronia ×prunifolia. The fruits contained significant amounts of cyanidin glycosides (0.3–323.2 mg/100 g DW) and two phenolic acids: chlorogenic acid (16.3–273.5 mg/100 g DW) and neochlorogenic acid (92.3–212.6 mg/100 g DW). The leaf extracts contained high amounts of flavonols: quercetin, quercitrin, and rutin (62.1–367.0 mg/100 g DW), as well as chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, and rosmarinic acid (max. 724.2, 482.7, 154.7 mg/100 g DW, respectively). Of the examined materials, A. arbutifolia leaves were characterized by the highest total phenolics content (9148.2 mg gal. ac. Eq./100 g DW) and showed the highest antioxidant activity in DPPH and FRAP assays. The results demonstrate that fruits of A. arbutifolia and A. ×prunifolia are a rich source of antioxidants and can be used as plant raw materials, alternatively to A. melanocarpa berries. Leaves of the investigated species are of potential therapeutic and dietary interest because of their high flavonol and phenolic acid content.

Hairy root cultures of Hyoscyamus niger were cultivated in shake-flasks, a bubble-column bioreactor and a hybrid bubble-column/spray bioreactor and evaluated for alkaloid production. The latter gave the highest anisodamine content (0.67 mg/g dry wt) whereas scopolamine, hyoscyamine and cuscohygrine concentrations were highest in the bubble-column reactor (5.3, 1.6 and 26.5 mg/g dry wt, respectively). Both bioreactors gave similar productivities of scopolamine (1 and 0.98 mg/l day) and cuscohygrine (5 and 5.4 mg/l day), but anisodamine productivity was 3.5-fold higher in the hybrid bioreactor (HB) (0.02 and 0.07 mg/l day, respectively). Elicitation with methyl jasmonate increased scopolamine productivity by 146 % in roots grown in the HB whereas their permeabilization with DMSO caused 4-, 5-, 25- and 28-fold increase in scopolamine, hyoscyamine, anisodamine and cuscohygrine concentrations in the growth medium. In situ extraction with Amberlite XAD-2 doubled scopolamine productivity in the hybrid reactor after 50 days.