## 3 Results and Discussion
### Transfer Rate (\(\%\)) of PAHs  
This study also determined the percentage of PAH transfer from the dried plants to the infusions, and the results are shown in Table 5. It can be seen that the sum of the 16 PAH compounds shows similar percentages (22.13%, 26.51% and 22.89%, respectively), for the plants _Hypericum perforatum_, _Matricaria chamomilla_ and _Crataegus monogyna_, while for _Taraxacum officinal_ and _Achillea millefolium_, the percentages were significantly lower (7.21% and 16.91%). At the same time, it can be seen that the transfer rate of PAHs in the case of _Taraxacum officinal_ is much lower compared to _Matricaria chamomilla_, even if the content of these compounds in the dry plant was higher.  
Regarding the LMW and HMW compounds, the presence of both groups in the infusions is observed, with the percentage of transfer varying from 6.64% to 37.50% and 7.42 to 31.72%, respectively (Table 5). The data reported in the literature indicate that HMW compounds present a lower solubility in water that those with a low molecular weight [32]. This can be observed in our case with _Artemisia absinthium_, where the HMW compounds did not pass into the infusions. On the other hand, our results may show that not only water solubility determines the number of PAHs transferred from the dried plant to the infusion. Numerous studies have mentioned that most PAHs are deposited on the surface of the leaves, and they can easily pass into infusions, and, on the other hand, some lipophilic  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**PAHs** & _p-Value_ \\ \hline Naphthalene (Na) & 0.01562 \\ Acenaphylene (Ac) & 0.01758 \\ Acenaphiophene (Ace) & **3.815 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Fluorene (Flu) & **4.768 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-7}\)** \\ Phenanthrene (Ph) & **3.815 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Anthracene (An) & **3.815 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Fluoranthene (FIn) & **3.815 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Pyrene (Pyr) & **3.815 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Benzola]anthracene (BaA) & **3.052 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-5}\)** \\ Chrysene (Chr) & 0.01562 \\ Benzo[b]fluoranthene (Bbf) & **5.96 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-6}\)** \\ Benzo[k]fluoranthene (BkF) & **0.00024** \\ Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) & **8.77 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-8}\)** \\ Benzo[g,h],iperylene (Bghi) & 0.073 \\ Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (Daha) & 0.01562 \\ Indeno[1,2,3,cd] pyrene (IP) & **3.052 \(\times\) 10\({}^{-5}\)** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} The _p-values smaller than the adjusted significance level_\(\alpha/15\approx 0.0033\) _indicate a significant difference between the PAH contents in the plant and in the infusion (shown in bold).  
\end{table}
Table 4: _p-values for the statistical analysis._  
Figure 3: Quantile–quantile plot for the difference in the BaP contents in the plant and in the infusion.  
compounds from plants (e.g., essential oils) can facilitate the passage of PAHs into aqueous infusions. [PERSON] et al. (2018) and [PERSON] et al. (2005) suggest that essential oils can act as co-solvents for many lipophilic substances and, therefore, can influence the solubility of these compounds in water [33; 34]. Another factor that could affect the transfer rate is the way the infusion is prepared. [PERSON] et al. (2015) studied different tea infusion times and obtained different PAH transfer percentages [35].  
In the case of 4 PAHs, the transfer percentages varied between 9.56% and 29.78% for _Taraxacum officinal_ and _Calendula officinalis_, respectively, with the contribution being especially significant for the BabF and BaP compounds. The average percentage transferred was 22.54%. Compared to other studies, the transfer rates were higher than those reported in herbal teas [12; 13].