Antimicrobial resistance presents one of the most significant threats to public health. This study aimed to examine antibiotic usage within the general population in the Republic of Serbia and their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning this topic. We conducted an online cross-sectional study over two weeks in December 2022, on a sample of 1014 respondents, representative of the Republic of Serbia's population. Predictors of the Antibiotic Knowledge Score (composed of four questions) were analyzed by multivariate ordinal logistic regression. In 2022, 76.8% of the participants from the Serbian population had taken antibiotics, mostly upon a medical prescription, with the most common reasons being upper respiratory tract infections. Only 31.3% of all respondents received any kind of advice about the rational use of antibiotics and half of them changed their opinions on using antibiotics after receiving this information. The average Antibiotic Knowledge Score was 2.6 out of 4, with 32.5% of respondents answering all knowledge questions correctly. The multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that female gender, higher education level, and the willingness to change opinions regarding the usage of antibiotics after receiving information about the rational use of antibiotics from any available source were significant predictors of better knowledge about antibiotics use. Respondents who were open to changing their opinion after receiving information about the rational use of antibiotics had 28% higher odds of higher antibiotic knowledge scores. This is the first population-level study on public knowledge, attitudes, and practices about antibiotic use in Serbia and therefore the baseline for future research and measuring the impact of potential interventions. Our findings underline the importance of taking into account specific population characteristics, knowledge levels, and attitudes when designing educational and intervention strategies for antibiotic use. Policymakers can leverage these findings to target specific groups and enhance the population's knowledge and practices regarding rational antibiotic usage.

St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a perennial herbaceous plant, which is often used as a medicinal plant among our people for various applications (wound healing, antiseptic, mild sedative, etc.). The focus of this research was the use of St. John's wort in ethnomedicine and ethnoveterinary medicine based on surveys among the population of Pirot County. The survey included four municipalities: Pirot, Babušnica, Bela Palanka and Dimitrovgrad. It was noticed that St. John's wort represents the best known medicinal plant species in Pirot County, and is usually used externally in the form of St. John's oil (Oleum Hyperici) for the treatment of wounds and burns.

Our study's objective was to systematize knowledge and traditional usage of plants against respiratory infections among the population in Serbia, based on literature data, and compare these results with published ethnomedicinal studies conducted in other territories of Balkan region. The study aimed to produce a review that can be a basis for further investigation, which may eventually lead to anti-viral agents' development. The ethnobotanical surveys we comprised in this review include 18 localities dispersed across the Balkan Peninsula, including the rural regions of Greece, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. These surveys identified 213 plants from 57 families represented in the folk medicine of the studied region. The primary indications of reported plant taxa in ethnobotanical studies in the Balkan Peninsula were cough; common cold and cold prevention; pneumonia and pulmonary diseases, bronchitis, asthma, bronchial catarrh, chest pain; fever, headache, influenza; sore throat, laryngitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, and inhalation; respiratory infections and respiratory diseases in general, and tuberculosis. Presented knowledge on the traditional use of plants against respiratory infections may serve as a basis and helpful guide for selecting plants that deserve new pharmacological and clinical studies, which may eventually lead to the development of efficient antimicrobial and anti-viral medicinal products.

Headspace sampling is a fast, simple and economical way to prepare plant samples for analysis by gas chromatography. For the first time, the composition of the head space volatiles (HSV) of six Salvia species (S. verticillata, S. glutinosa, S. nemorosa, S. aethiopis, S. amplexicaulis and S. officinalis) in the flowering stage and two (S. glutinosa and S. sclarea) in the fruiting stage from Southeastern Serbia was analysed using the GC-FID-MS technique after headspace sampling. The chemical composition of the highly volatile compounds of the analysed species varies considerably. Monoterpene hydrocarbons represented the dominant class of volatile compounds in all the Salvia species, except for S. sclarea and S. aethiopis. The content of sesquiterpenes was the highest in S. aethiopis (96.9%) and S. glutinosa in the flowering phase (29.5%), while in all the other samples that percentage was below 10%. Oxygenated monoterpenes were the most abundant in S. sclarea, where the main component was oxygenated monoterpene linalyl acetate (97.7%). The main component of S. verticillata was ?-phellandrene, and its content varied depending on the plant location and sampling time. The main component of S. glutinosa in the flowering phase was limonene (16.6%), and in the fruiting phase sabinene (87.1%). Headspace analysis of the volatile components of S. aethiopis was carried out for the first time and the most abundant detected components were sesquiterpenes: (E)- caryophyllene (36.8%), ?-copaene (33.4%) and ?-elemene (7.3%). The analysis of the principal components was performed to interpret the grouping patterns, as well as to analyse the similarities and differences between the samples in terms of the composition of the volatile components. The samples were grouped into three clusters. The first cluster consisted of samples of S. verticillata (S1, S4 and S5) from different locations, the second comprised samples of S. glutinosa (S3), S. aethiopis (S8), S. amplexicaulis (S9) and S. officinalis (S10), while samples of S. nemorosa (S7) made up the third cluster. The HS-GC-FID-MS technique can be successfully used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of volatile compounds of different Salvia species. The obtained results are important for evaluating the possibility of using different types of sage.