# Phytocomplex Influences Antimicrobial and Health Properties of Concentrated Glycerine Macerates
## 1 Introduction  
Gemmotherary is a young branch of phytotherapy developed in the second half of the 20 th century. It was established by [PERSON] (1959) [1] as herbal medicine and bases its principles on the therapeutic potential of meristatic tissues of plants. [PERSON] developed a method to extract the active ingredientsfrom the buds using cold maceration in water, alcohol, and glycerol to obtain products named glycerine macerates (GMs). His studies laid the foundations of the modern gemmotherary [2] or meristemotherapy. Subsequently, several French and Italian scientists developed and perfected [PERSON]'s studies [3,4]. In 1965, the eighth French pharmacopoeia described [5] for the first time the preparation of GMs, which were then reported in the subsequent Italian pharmacopoeias [6]. According to pharmacopoeias, GMs are obtained immediately after harvest through the maceration of different fresh meristematic tissues [7]. In these guidelines, it is reported that before their use, GMs need to be diluted at the first Hahnemannian dilution (1 DH) according to homeopathic procedures. Recently, the use of concentrated GMs (C-GMs), which are undiluted to 1 DH, has been spreading.  
These C-GMs are natural extracts that lose their homeopathic characteristics and acquire those of traditional herbal medicine with more concentrated and easily detectable active ingredients [3,8]. C-GMs are about 10 times more concentrated than GMs, and therefore are used at lower doses (adults: about 5-15 gtt/day) than those used for diluted extracts (adults: up to 1 gtt/kg/day). As known, the most critical aspect of formulation based on natural substances is the chemical variability dependent on both the cultivation practice and the extraction process used to produce these extracts. Two are the extraction methods most commonly used. The first involves maceration of fresh buds in an _ana parti_ solution of water, alcohol and glycerol, while the second involves maceration in an equal volume of alcohol and glycerol. In the first method, water and alcohol participate in the extraction of hydrophilic active components, and the final products have a lower alcohol and glycerol concentration than the extracts obtained with the second method in which the only water present is that contained in the meristematic tissues. To date, very few studies have evaluated the quality and effectiveness of GMs [9, 10, 11], and no study has been developed on C-GMs. These kinds of products are already on sale, and their potential for healing a series of diseases is claimed based on clinical evidence, although no relationship has been established between their effects, on one side, and their composition and properties on the other.  
The aim of this study was to correlate the chemical composition of four commercial C-GMs extracted from different plant species (_Carpinus betulus_ L., _Ficus carica_ L., _Almus glutinosa_ ([PERSON] [PERSON] and _Ribes nigrum_ L.), three of which are traditionally used in presence of upper respiratory tract diseases [2], with some relevant properties in the treatment of airway diseases, such as anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, and immunomodulatory properties. To achieve this goal, two commercial C-GMs for each species, obtained by the same extraction method, have been focused.