## 1 Introduction  
_Rhus typhina_ L. (family Anacardiaceae), commonly called staghorn sumac or vinegar tree [1], is recognized as a strongly invasive species in Europe [1, 2], including Romania [3, 4]. According to a study carried out in 2022 [5], _R. typhina_ is one of the main ornamental species cultivated in the territory of Romania and is perceived as a naturalized plant [6].  
Numerous pharmacological properties of different parts of this plant species have been previously described, including antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of the stem, and of its isolated compounds [7]; antimicrobial effects of tannins extracted with ethanol from leaves, and of the isolated tannin 3,6-bis-O-di-O-galloyl-l,2,4-tri-O-galloyl-\(\beta\)-D-glucose [8; 9; 10]; antiviral effects of methanolic leaf extracts [11]; anti-melntic effects of leaves on _Caenorhabditis elegans_[12]; anti-inflammatory effects of polyphenols isolated from fruits, and of a leaf water-acetonic extract [13; 14]; antidiabetic properties of the hydrolyse tannin 3,6-bis-O-di-O-galloyl-l,2,4-tri-O-galloyl-\(\beta\)-d-glucose and the polyphenolic gallotannin poly-galloyl-glucopyranoside (PGG) [15; 16]; neuroprotective effects of the hydrolyse tannin 3,6-bis-O-di-O-galloyl-l,2,4-tri-O-galloyl-\(\beta\)-d-glucose isolated from leaves [17]; antihemolytic properties of a leaf extract rich in hydrolysable tannins [8]; antiproliferative properties of fruits and leaves [11; 18].  
Fruits from _R. typhina_, which contain up to 400 spherical hairy drupes [19], are used in ecological dyeing [20] and pigment printing [21]. Fruits from staghorn sumac have been used in folk medicine as a cough reliever and anthelmitic, for healing diseases of the respiratory and genital systems [22], and for controlling bleeding [20]. Fruits are rich in phenolic compounds, among them rutin, quercetin, phenolic acids (gallic acid) [7], and at least 15 anthocyanins [23; 24], as well as vitamin C (62.0 mg%) [19], malic acid [25], fatty acids (linoleic and palmitic acids), and carbohydrates (xylan, aribanan) [26]. Fruits have also been used for food purposes, for seasoning meat, salads, and sweets [19; 23], as a drink named \"Sumacade\" [20; 23], and for improving the preservation of bread, meat, and cheese [27; 28].  
Regarding the extraction of polyphenols from staghorn sumac fruits, it was carried out using different solvents, as follows: methanol [24; 29], 1% formic acid [30], and ethanol at different concentrations [25; 31; 32; 33]. The most frequently applied extraction techniques were maceration under stirring conditions [25], the Soxhlet method [29], ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) [30; 32], and percolation [33].  
There is limited research on the contents of anthocyanins, tannins, and carotenoids in extracts obtained from _R. typhina_ fruits. Therefore, in this study, we performed optimization of extraction of phenolic compounds from _R. typhina_ fruits using a Box-Behnken experimental design under ultrasound-assisted and bead-beating conditions, varying several parameters. Total phenolic content, as well as their HPLC profile, and total contents of anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins, and carotenoids were evaluated in the developed extracts. The antioxidant, antimicrobial, antihemolytic, and cytotoxic (on HepG2 and MeWo cell lines) properties of fruit extracts were investigated in vitro. No studies were identified that have reported the application of bead-beating extraction (BBE) to _R. typhina_ fruits, although it has been reported as an efficient mechanochemical method for other samples [34; 35].