  Citation: Nunes, A.R.; Gonçalves, A.C.; Pinto, E.; Amaro, F.; Flores-Félix, J.D.; Almeida, A.; Guedes de Pinho, P.; Falcão, A.; Alves, G.; Silva, L.R. Mineral Content and Volatile Profiling of Prunus avium L. (Sweet Cherry) By-Products from Fundão Region (Portugal). Foods 2022, 11, 751. https://doi.org/10.3390/ foods11050751 Academic Editor: Rinaldo Botondi Received: 31 January 2022 Accepted: 3 March 2022 Published: 4 March 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). foods Article Mineral Content and Volatile Profiling of Prunus avium L. (Sweet Cherry) By-Products from Fundão Region (Portugal) Ana R. Nunes 1,2 , Ana C. Gonçalves 1,3 , Edgar Pinto 4,5 , Filipa Amaro 6,7 , José D. Flores-Félix 1 , Agostinho Almeida 4 , Paula Guedes de Pinho 6,7 , Amílcar Falcão 3,8 , Gilberto Alves 1, * and Luís R. Silva 1,9, * 1 CICS-UBI—Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Av. Infante D. Henrique, 6200-506 Covilha, Portugal; araqueln@gmail.com (A.R.N.); anacarolinagoncalves@sapo.pt (A.C.G.); jdflores@usal.es (J.D.F.-F.) 2 CNC—Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal 3 Laboratory of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal; acfalcao@ff.uc.pt 4 LAQV/REQUIMTE, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal; ecp@ess.ipp.pt (E.P.); aalmeida@ff.up.pt (A.A.) 5 Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Polytechnic Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal 6 UCIBIO, REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal; filipa_amaro@hotmail.com (F.A.); pguedes@ff.up.pt (P.G.d.P.) 7 Associate Laboratory i4HB, Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal 8 CIBIT—Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research, University of Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548 Coimbra, Portugal 9 CPIRN-UDI-IPG—Center of Potential and Innovation of Natural Resources, Research Unit for Inland Development, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, 6300-559 Guarda, Portugal * Correspondence: gilberto@fcsaude.ubi.pt (G.A.); luisfarmacognosia@gmail.com (L.R.S.) Abstract: Large amounts of Prunus avium L. by-products result from sweet cherry production and processing. This work aimed to evaluate the mineral content and volatile profiling of the cherry stems, leaves, and flowers of the Saco cultivar collected from the Fundão region (Portugal). A total of 18 min- erals were determined by ICP-MS, namely 8 essential and 10 non-essential elements. Phosphorus (P) was the most abundant mineral, while lithium (Li) was detected in trace amounts. Three different preparations were used in this work to determine volatiles: hydroethanolic extracts, crude extracts, and aqueous infusions. A total of 117 volatile compounds were identified using HS-SPME/GC- MS, distributed among different chemical classes: 31 aldehydes, 14 alcohols, 16 ketones, 30 esters, 4 acids, 4 monoterpenes, 3 norisoprenoids, 4 hydrocarbons, 7 heterocyclics, 1 lactone, 1 phenol, and 2 phenylpropenes. Benzaldehyde, 4-methyl-benzaldehyde, hexanal, lilac aldehyde, and 6-methyl- 5-hepten-2-one were the major volatile compounds. Differences in the types of volatiles and their respective amounts in the different extracts were found. This is the first study that describes the mineral and volatile composition of Portuguese sweet cherry by-products, demonstrating that they could have great potential as nutraceutical ingredients and natural flavoring agents to be used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. Keywords: Prunus avium L.; bio-residues; volatile compounds; essential elements; HS-SPME/GC-MS; ICP-MS 1. Introduction In recent years, bioactive compounds of natural origin have been arousing great interest due to their potential for the prevention and treatment of several diseases, as well as for health promotion [1]. The richness of plants in phenolic compounds makes them an Foods 2022, 11, 751. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11050751 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/foods