## 3 Results and Discussion
### The Chromatographic Characterization of BDs
_Ficus carica_ L. (FC) was used in traditional medicine to cure various disorders such as gastrointestinal (dysenter, constipation, colic, ulcers and loss of appetite) and respiratory (coughs, sore throats and bronchial problems) thanks to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antipyretic, antidiabetic, anthelmintic, antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic activities [24]. * RN presented a good quercetin and quercetin contents (about 30-50 mg/100 g FW), ellagic acid (about 70 mg/100 g FW) and catechins (about 60-100 mg/100 g FW). Cinnamic acids were identified in amounts of about 5-20 mg/100 g FW. _Ribes nigrum_ L. (RN) buds are used in medicinal preparations as anti-inflammatory agents for the treatment of dermal diseases, such as eczema and psoriasis, and for the healing of wounds [25; 26]. R. nigrum BDs contain high polyphenol contents, especially catechins and phenolic acids, and are endowed with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities which have been proven to play an important role in the human health in the prevention of several chronic diseases [16; 27]. Specific bioactive compounds can be used collectively as representative standards of an extract in quantification, as performed in this study. Bioactive substances (phenolics) were selected, comparing the BD's health-promoting properties and the most important antioxidant molecules in the literature with important roles in the positive effects on the human organism. Chromatography offers a very powerful separation ability, such that the complex chemical components in plant extracts can be separated into many relatively simple sub-fractions. The most important technique used for the characterization of plant extracts is to measure the concentration of one or very few markers or active components (\"marker approach\") [28]. This approach is far from satisfactory, as the biological activity is due to more than one or two single chemical compounds. The \"multi-marker approach\" used in this research is the natural extension of the \"marker approach\". It uses many, or even all, of the identified substances (the chemical profile of the considered sample) to represent the whole sample [29; 30; 31]. This approach is applied to many complex systems (e.g., herbs, herbal preparations, food supplements and foodstuffs). It is impossible to consider all the bioactive substances that may be included in the extracts due to the very high number of potential molecules; thanks to the multi-marker approach, the composition is approximated to the most important compounds with biological activities (demonstrated in the literature). The higher the number of markers, the smaller the approximation will be. In this case, four phenolic classes (13 markers) were selected for the evaluation. Even if chromatographic fingerprints have proved to be very useful in discriminating among the BDs derived from the six considered different species [5; 32], they are neither rapid nor non-destructive. However, spectroscopic techniques offer simple, rapid and non-destructive means of analyzing samples while providing quite similar information in terms of the rapid screening of different vegetable species [33].