## 3 Results and Discussion
### Total Phenols Content (TPC) of Medicinal Plant Extracts  
Figure 2 shows the TPC for the CS/FG samples extracted by CES, UAE, and MWE. Figure 2a,c,e present the content of total polyphenols (TPC) expressed as mgGAE/g dry matter (DM) using CES, UAE, and UWE. Figure 2b,d,f present the increasing/decreasing of TPC (%) after different preparations of the sample (FG/CS) calculated according to Equation (1). Figure 2: TPC content for CS/FG samples extracted by CES, UAE, and MWE methods. According to the \(t\)-test, the different lower-case letters (a–f represent the significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) between samples obtained by the same shredding method. The different capital letters (A, B) represent the significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) between samples from the same plant obtained by different shredding methods. From the results obtained regarding CES (Figure 2a), it can be observed that the TPC in the FG samples is higher than the GS for all analyzed medicinal plants. The TPC value ranged between 4.83-19.2 mgGAE/g DM in the samples CS and between 19.00-52.85 mgGAE/g DM in the samples FG. The maximum TPC content was recorded in AM, OV and HP plants. In the case of CES extraction, significant increases in TPC were recorded forfine grinding (FG) compared to coarse shredding (CS) (Figure 2b). The maximum increase percentage was observed for the MP extract (609.04%) and the minimum for the EP extract (109.42%). Except for the OV extract, for which no significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) in terms of TPC were observed between the coarsely ground (CS) and powder (FG) variants extracted by the UAE and MWE processes, significant differences were identified for all other medicinal plants. Regarding the differences in TPC between the plants analyzed and processed by the same procedure, most of the samples have statistically significant differences (\(p<0.05\)). The exception was the pairs MP/OV/SO1, AM/EP, OV/HP samples obtained by coarse grinding (CS) and extracted by CES, and between the pairs AM/OV, SO1/CO/EP, MP/SO1/SO2, MP/HO samples obtained by fine grinding (FG) and extracted by CES. For the GS samples, TPC values obtained by the UAE vary between 12.98 mgGAE/g DM (SO2) and 42.96 mgGAE/g DM (HP), and for FG samples between 29.17 mgGAE/g DM (CO) and 81.35 mgGAE/g DM (HP) (Figure 2c). In the case of the samples extracted using UAE, processing the sample in powder form leads to better extraction of total polyphenols. Other authors reported similar values in alcoholic extracts from medicinal plants: 86.05-274.73 mgGAE/g DM [32], 2.41-7.42 mgGAE/g DM [33], and 51-258 mgGAE/g [34]. Regarding the difference between powdered and crushed samples, the highest value was recorded in the case of HP (38.39 mgGAE/g DM) and the lowest in the case of LA (5.14 mgGAE/g DM). The increase in TPC by processing the sample in powder form compared to the crushed version is minimal for LA (21.34%) and the highest for SO2 (208.44%) (Figure 2d). The antioxidant activity of phenols is due to their redox properties due to the hydroxyl groups. In the literature studies, the TPC content of medicinal plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family varied between 59.89 and 61.99 mg GAE/g [35], 40 and 60 mg GAE/g DM [36], and 14.53 and 33.22 mg GAE/g DM [37]. [PERSON] et al. [38] highlighted the importance of the extraction method on the content of TPC extracted from SO. The TPC determined in the SO extract was 27.05 mg GAE/g DM, similar to the one we obtained in this study in the CS samples (21.81 mg GAE/g DM). Similar results (25.58 mg GAE/g) were obtained for the hydro-methananic or methanol-acetone extract (17.1 mg GAE/g) [39; 40], while extraction with methanol alone led to a lower content of TPC (2.23 mg GAE/g) [41] and 2.337 mg GAE/g, respectively [42]. An content of 9.15 mg GAE/g. was obtained when supercritical fluid extraction of TPC from stage leaves leads was applied [43]. The effect of the extraction solvent on the TPC content was reported by [PERSON] et al. [44].