## 4 Results and Discussion
### Tinctures of Marigold Flowers (Calendula officinalis L.)  
Marigold _Calendula officinalis_ L. is a plant that has been known since antiquity. It was used as a medicinal product for internal and external ailments of various skin diseases. Currently, it is also used as a food, and as a medicinal and cosmetic product [26,44]. The pharmacological activity of marigold is associated with the content of various secondary metabolites, such as essential oils, flavonoids, sterols, carotenoids, tannins, saponins, triterpene alcohols, polysaccharides, bitter substances, mucilage and resin [27,28,45,46]. Marigold flowers, due to their beautiful colour, are used to decorate and colour dishes. The growing interest in edible flowers has resulted in marigold being used to make tinctures. According to the manufacturer of these home tinctures, this is a unique flower. Tinctures were obtained from dried and fresh flowers. Because of the bitter taste of the tincture of dried _Calendula off._ L., the producer used the addition of an orange juice. Tinctures of marigold flowers obtained from dried flowers and from dried flowers with the addition of orange juice were characterized by a different content of substances reacting with the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent, which amounted, respectively to 27.08 \(\pm\) 0.33 and 25.89 \(\pm\) 0.22 mg GAE/100 mL (Table 2). The fresh flower tincture on the other hand contained more less than half of the polyphenolic compounds expressed as GAE. All differences were statistically significant (Table 2). It is instructive to compare the results for dried marigold flower tinctures with and without added orange juice when expressed in mg GAE/g raw material. The fact that the addition of orange juice would result in almost three times the GAE content than the alone flowers strongly suggests that most of the antioxidative power of the tincture with added juice comes directly from this addition, as orange juice is known for its strong antioxidative ability, most importantly due to the abundance of ascorbic acid in citrus jiices. No articles on marigold tinctures were found in the literature. The study by [PERSON] et al. [48] shows that the content of polyphenolic compounds in marigold flowers depends on the variety. They found, in alcoholic extracts of dried marigold flowers _Calendula arwensis_ L., the presence of polyphenolic compounds at the level of 14.49 \(\pm\) 0.38 mg/g, and slightly more in the water extract, at 15.12 \(\pm\) 0.40 mg/g. In turn, _Calendula off._ L. alcohol macrates contained polyphenols at 55.07 \(\pm\) 1.11 mg/g, and in water extracts the level was 57.47 \(\pm\) 1.12 mg/g. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [49] stated that in the _Calendula off._ L. extract, the presence of compounds reactive with the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent was at the level of 120-150 mg GAE/100 mL. Tinctures of marigold flowers in this work were also characterized by diverse antioxidant activity. The homemade tincture of dried flowers and the fresh flower tincture had similar capabilities for scavenging of DPPH radicals, at 41.23 \(\pm\) 19.18 and 40.85 \(\pm\) 6.91%, respectively (Table 2). In contrast, the tincture of dried marigold flowers with the addition of orange juice scavenged 56.81 \(\pm\) 15.48% of DPPH radicals. However, this difference was not statistically significant (Table 2). At this stage of research, it is difficult to explain the reasons for these differences. However, we can hypothesize that the higher TP content in the dried- vs. fresh-flowers home tinctures may result from the fact that dried flowers contain more polyphenols in the same mass due to the absence of water present in fresh flower material. Apparently contradictory results of DPPH scavenging ability may be explained by the presence of other substances reacting with DPPH in fresh flowers,which may decompose during the drying process. However, we do not know the exact drying conditions of the flowers, and they can be decisive for the content of biologically active ingredients. [PERSON] et al.