THE STABILITY OF RUTIN AND CHLOROGENIC ACID DURING THE PROCESSING OF BLACK ELDER (SAMBUCUS NIGRA) INFLORESCENCE

Black elder inflorescence has been traditionally used in Central Europe both in folk and official medicine. This plant material is a rich source of two biologically active components, rutin and chlorogenic acid. Nevertheless, there is a lack of data on the changes of their content during processing. The stability of rutin and chlorogenic acid during drying and the long-term storage of black elder inflorescence were analysed in this study. The rutin content was determined by capillary electrophoresis using solid-phase extraction. HPLC was used for the determination of chlorogenic acid. The dependence of rutin and chlorogenic acid content on the temperature of drying and storage duration were monitored and statistically evaluated by a two-way ANOVA test. The contents of rutin and chlorogenic acid revealed no statistically significant changes when dried at temperatures of 22 degrees C and 30 degrees C. The significant decrease in contents of both studied compounds was found at a drying temperature of 50 degrees C. The decrease in content of rutin was about 20%, in chlorogenic acid about 12%. The content of both studied compounds also decreased after long-term storage (at a temperature of 22 degrees C for one year). The decrease in content of rutin was greater than that of chlorogenic acid.