Ricerc@Sapienza

The purpose of this study was to correlate the chemical composition of four commercial
concentrated glycerine macerates (C-GMs), produced through the same extraction method, with their
in vitro antimicrobial, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory properties, in order to evaluate their
potential for healing upper airway diseases. C-GMs of Carpinus betulus (CB), Ficus carica (FC),
Alnus glutinosa (AG) and Ribes nigrum (RN) were studied. The quality was evaluated using HPLC and
IM-SPME/GC-MS systems; anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activities were assessed by the respective
DPPH test, and micro-broth dilution test performed against 10 strains of Streptococcus pyogenes and
10 probiotic strains. ELISA and MTT tests were used to assess the immunomodulatory activity and
the cytotoxicity of C-GMs, respectively. A significant correlation was found between the number
of active compounds and the in vitro C-GMs eectiveness. Furthermore, the C-GMs of AG showed
the best anti-microbial activity on pathological strains and, together with CB, the best anti-oxidant
activity. The ELISA test exhibited a good immunomodulatory activity of RN. In vitro data support
the integrated use of C-GMs of CB, AG, and RN in presence of airway diseases, and highlight the
importance of standard procedures in cultivation, harvest and post-harvest treatments, as a premise
for C-GMs with consistent characteristics.