# Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of _Asteraceae_ Family Plants
## 3 Results
### Comparison: Species \(\times\) Part of Plants Interaction
#### 3.2.2 Total Polyphenols Content and Antioxidant Activity  
The raw material containing the lowest amount of total polyphenols were leaves of common dandelion (690.7 mg CAE/100 g DM) (Table 4). The low content of total polyphenols was also accompanied by a low AA of the raw material, determined with the use of three methods. As a result, the ability to scavenge free radicals determined with the use of the DPPH\({}^{+}\) radical was also the lowest (RSA = 41.46%), but this parameter determined based on the ABTS\({}^{+}\) radical was the highest among the compared raw materials (RSA = 73.47%), which indicates a strong the hydrophilic nature of the antioxidants of this raw material. Contrary to the leaves of common dandelion, the highest amount of polyphenols was found in the inflorescences of this species (2330.1 mg CAE/100 g DM). Moreover, the three methods used to determine the antioxidant activity confirmed a very large AA of inflorescence of common dandelion. The obtained results were the highest among the raw \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Inflorescences**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Leaves**} \\ \cline{2-7}
**Item** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Common**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Tassy**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**European**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Common**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Tassy**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**European**} \\  & **Dandelion** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Tassy**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Goldenrod**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Dandelion**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Tassy**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Goldenrod**} \\ \hline Total polyphenols (mg CAE\({}^{2}\)/100 g DM) \({}^{1}\) & 2330.1\({}^{\pm}\) 29.9 & 1399.2\({}^{\pm}\) \(\pm\) 80.2 & 2198.9\({}^{\pm}\) 42.9 & 690.7\({}^{\pm}\) 45.8 & 1467.1\({}^{\pm}\) 11.9 & 1801.8\({}^{\pm}\) 50.2 \\ TEAC\({}^{3}\) ABTS\({}^{+}\) (\(\mu\)M Trolcos/1 g DM) & 373.8\({}^{\pm}\) 12.7 & 272.9\({}^{\pm}\) 0.8 & 313.9\({}^{\pm}\) 3.3 & 58.79\({}^{\pm}\) 2.04 & 254.7\({}^{\pm}\) 6.6 & 324.4\({}^{\pm}\) 14.2 \\ RSA \({}^{4}\) ams (\%) & 632.0\({}^{\pm}\) 0.94 & 67.67\({}^{\pm}\) 0.10 & 62.47\({}^{\pm}\) 0.28 & 73.47\({}^{\pm}\) 1.32 & 60.73\({}^{\pm}\) 0.66 & 69.87\({}^{\pm}\) 1.51 \\ TEAC DPPH\({}^{+}\) (all Trolcos/1 g DM) & 354.9\({}^{\pm}\) 21.1 & 104.3\({}^{\pm}\) 1.3 & 164.2\({}^{\pm}\) 11.8 & 19.90\({}^{\pm}\) 0.73 & 197.4\({}^{\pm}\) 4.95 & 129.6\({}^{\pm}\) 14.4 \\ RSA\({}^{4}\)epprit (\%) & 54.32\({}^{\pm}\) 1.05 & 40.93\({}^{\pm}\) 0.11 & 42.67\({}^{\pm}\) 0.69 & 41.46\({}^{\pm}\) 0.32 & 47.89\({}^{\pm}\) 0.63 & 42.30\({}^{\pm}\) 0.32 \\ TEAC (FRAT) (\(\mu\)M Trolcos/1 g DM) & 266.3\({}^{\pm}\) 19.9 & 136.0\({}^{\pm}\) 1.1 & 259.6\({}^{\pm}\) 18.8 & 35.17\({}^{\pm}\) 1.04 & 201.5\({}^{\pm}\) 3.4 & 238.6\({}^{\pm}\) 3.8 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{1}\)—different letters within each line indicate significant differences; the data are expressed in mean \(\pm\) standard error of mean, \({}^{2}\) CAE\({}^{-}\)chlorogenic acid equivalent; \({}^{3}\) TEAC—Trolcos equivalent antioxidant capacity; \({}^{4}\) RSA—radical scavenging activity.  
\end{table} 
Table 4: Total polyphenols content and antioxidant activity of _Asteraceae_ family plants (species \(\times\) parts of plants interaction). Figure 2: Biplot based on first two principal component axes for proximate composition and antioxidant activity of raw material from _Asteraceae_ family plants (**A**) and distribution of raw material (leaves, inflorescences) based on the first two components obtained from principal component analysis (**B**). materials compared. However, the nature of antioxidants significantly changed because, in the case of infloreserences, the highest scavenging ability of free radicals was confirmed using the DPPH\({}^{+}\) radical (54.32%) and the lowest one using the ABTS\({}^{+}\) radical (63.20%). This probably means an increase in the proportion of the lipophilic fraction of antioxidants contained in common dandelion infloreserences compared to the proportion of this fraction in the leaves of this species.