## 3 Results and Discussion
### Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Capacity  
The samples of honeydew honey were subjected to further analysis in terms of total polyphenols as well as antioxidant activity using various colorimetric methods (Table 3). Among the tested honeydew honey samples, the highest content of total polyphenols was in samples H3 and H4, while a significantly lower content was recorded in the remaining two samples. It is known that honeydew honey from Central and Eastern Europe is characterized by a high content of polyphenols, which was previously confirmed for 14 samples of coniferous honeydew honey from Podkarpackie [5]. The samples described were within the range previously determined for a larger set of samples of Polish honeydew honey: 635.42-1289.43 mg GAE/kg [5] and 645.7-1207.5 mg GAE/kg [14]. A previous comparative study of Polish and Romanian honeydew honey showed an average polyphenol content of 1470 mg GAE/kg, with no difference due to origin [45]. On the other hand, there are reports giving a much lower value for Polish honeydew honey from another region (146.3 mg/kg), but without specifying the type of honeydew [17]. Rapeseed honey used as a \"negative control\" contained only 195.44 mg/kg of polyphenols, which is consistent with previous reports on this variety of honey [5; 14; 46]. The antioxidant activity of the tested honeys, determined using five methods, significantly correlated with the polyphenol content (0.619 < r < 0.987), which confirms the significant contribution of this group of compounds in shaping this activity. Regardless of the method used, all honeydew honeys showed high antioxidant potential, significantly exceeding that of rapeseed honey. This confirms previous data comparing dark and light honeys [5; 14; 16]. Rarely used methods to assess the antioxidant properties of honey are the ability to chelate iron(II) and copper(II) ions. Due to the participation of these metal ions in the  
\begin{table} \begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \begin{tabular}{c} **Honey** \\ **Sample** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **TPC** \\ **[mg GAE/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **DPPH** \\ **[umol TE/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **FRAP** \\ **[umol TE/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **CUPRAC** \\ **[umol TE/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Fe\({}^{2+}\) **Chelating** \\ **Ability** \\ **[mg EDTA/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Cu\({}^{2+}\) **Chelating** \\ **Ability** \\ **[mg EDTA/kg]** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline H1 & 657.24 \(\pm\) 80.91 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 773.98 \(\pm\) 48.26 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & 1443.53 \(\pm\) 33.72 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 8243.59 \(\pm\) 683.0 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 2498.31 \(\pm\) 224.56 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 1123.91 \(\pm\) 20.46 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) \\ \hline H2 & 823.91 \(\pm\) 43.67 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 710.36 \(\pm\) 43.17 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 1628.29 \(\pm\) 18.32 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 10666.67 \(\pm\) 385.26 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 969.39 \(\pm\) 44.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 1075.50 \(\pm\) 31.44 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ \hline H3 & 1001.98 \(\pm\) 23.07 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 941.73 \(\pm\) 141.93 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 2213.82 \(\pm\) 47.44 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 11160.26 \(\pm\) 664.04 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 2081.72 \(\pm\) 297.54 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 1164.75 \(\pm\) 11.42 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) \\ \hline H4 & 980.65 \(\pm\) 7.10 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 865.03 \(\pm\) 90.22 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & 2126.10 \(\pm\) 83.77 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 11166.67 \(\pm\) 122.13 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 2038.96 \(\pm\) 93.61 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 1191.98 \(\pm\) 14.59 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ \hline R & 195.44 \(\pm\) 2.27 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 125.98 \(\pm\) 13.27 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 272.48 \(\pm\) 2.51 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 2237.18 \(\pm\) 154.25 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 441.63 \(\pm\) 95.88 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 582.37 \(\pm\) 87.21 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  \({}^{\text{a}}\):\  
Fenton and Haber-Weiss reactions, the ability of natural substances to capture them is considered an important mechanism of antioxidant activity [32].