Industrial Crops and Products 95 (2017) 227–234 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products jo ur nal home p age: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) by-products a source of anthocyanins and antioxidant polyphenols Pedro Silva 1 , Sandrine Ferreira 1 , Fernando M. Nunes ∗ Chemistry Research Centre – Vila Real (CQ-VR), Chemistry Department, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, School of Life Sciences and Environment, Vila Real, Portugal a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 May 2016 Received in revised form 3 October 2016 Accepted 9 October 2016 Available online 28 October 2016 Keywords: Elderberry By-products Branches Anthocyanins Polyphenols Antioxidant activity a b s t r a c t Elderberry industrial by-products can be a potential low cost source of some unique bioactive polyphe- nols. Hence, the main objective of this work was to perform a comparative study of the polyphenol proﬁle of elderberry branches, the scavenging activity towards 2,2  -azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)- 6-sulfonic acid, hydroxyl and nitric oxide radicals and to compare with those of the elderberry berries. Total phenolic compounds and anthocyanins were signiﬁcantly higher in the berries when compared to the branches (1.68 and 3.21 times, respectively), nevertheless the 2,2  -azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline- 6-sulfonic acid) and hydroxyl radicals scavenging activities were similar between the two materials, and branches extract presented a higher nitric oxide radical scavenging activity. A total of 23 polyphenolic compounds were detected in all samples, of which thirteen compounds were present both in berries and branches, including cyanidin 3,5-diglucoside, cyanidin 3-sambubioside-5-glucoside, cyanidin 3- glucoside and cyanidin 3-sambubioside. As elderberry production is increasing, as well the generation of associated by products, the polyphenolic composition of the elderberry branches opens the possibility of its valorization, using simple and relatively easy extraction procedures yielding extracts rich in polyphe- nols possessing a signiﬁcant antioxidant activity, useful to other emerging industrial and agricultural applications. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction European elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) is a deciduous shrub native from northern hemisphere, being nowadays present throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of Asia, North Africa and North America (Fazio et al., 2013; Veberic et al., 2009). Its high commercial value is due to its fruits, the elderberry berries, which contain large amounts of anthocyanins and other polyphe- nols (Dawidowicz et al., 2006; Veberic et al., 2009), being used as food colorants in jams and jellies, pies, yoghurts, syrups, and alcoholic beverages (Cernusca et al., 2012; Lee and Finn, 2007; Lima-Brito et al., 2011; Schmitzer et al., 2010). Due to the large amounts of phytochemicals present in the berries and to the sig- niﬁcant antioxidant properties, berries are also used as dietary ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: fnunes@utad.pt (F.M. Nunes). 1 These authors contributed equally to this project. complements in the form of concentrates, juices and infusions (Duymus ¸ et al., 2014), this last one being traditionally used for the treatment of constipation, diuretic and respiratory tract infections. Several studies have demonstrated that elderberry extracts besides having antioxidant activity, present anti-inﬂammatory, arthero- protective, immune-stimulating and chemopreventive potential effect. So elderberry phytochemicals may have an important action in the prevention of several degenerative diseases, such as cardio- vascular and inﬂammatory disease, cancer and diabetes (Duymus ¸ et al., 2014; Fazio et al., 2013; Ozgen et al., 2010; Schmitzer et al., 2010). In the last two decades the elderberry plantation has increased signiﬁcantly in Portugal, being mainly cultivated in the Varosa Valley located in the northern part, where it has excellent edaphoclimatic conditions, being produced annually between 1500 and 2000 ton of elderberry berries (Neto, 2007; Seabra et al., 2010). In recent years, the elderberry production and commercializa- tion has changed signiﬁcantly, whereas traditionally elderberries were commercialized dried, today the fresh refrigerated elderber- ries are the main product exported to other European countries http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2016.10.018 0926-6690/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.