## 4 Discussion
### Chemical Composition
In addition to the effect of inhibiting the oxidative reactions in the chain and chelating the reactive metals, antioxidants prevent the formation of reactive species, neutralize and remove them. Bee products are considered sources of natural antioxidants that can reduce the effects of oxidative stress. Of these products, propolisis generally has the highest antioxidant activity, followed by royal jelly and honey (5.0-15.5 mg/mL) [59]. The previous studies [60] showed that the content of polyphenols in honey is very important because they lead to the antioxidant activity. The same authors found a correlation (r = 0.963) between the content of total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity in honey. Our results are in line with those obtained by other authors [61]. Thus, before the administration of the treatment with EOs, the TPC in our honey sample was 110.1 mg-GAE/100 g and increase, after the administration of EOs until 163.95 mgGAE/100 g, in the honey sample treated with basil EO. Other authors reported, in Sicilian black honeybees, a TPC content between 41.11-13.90 mgGAE/100 g, respectively in honey from Spain 100-137 mgGAE/100 g [62,63]. TPC in the samples harvested from Romania was found in the range of 12.75-31.04 mgGAE/100 g [64], while in chestnut honey samples from Turkey, the TPC was 470.70 mgGAE/100 g and 34.37 mgGAE/100 g in wild mint honey [65]. [PERSON] et al. (2020) studied the TPC and FC content in thyme and mint honey samples purchased from apicultural associations from different regions in Romania [66]. The TPC was 18.9 mg/100 g in the mint honey and 23.7 mg/100 g in the thyme mint. Our results highlight the contribution of TPC conferred by the addition of EOs in bee feed. Thus, the TPC in the harvested honey is 143.7 mgGAE/100 g in the mint honey and 137.88 mgGAE/100 g in the thyme honey, emphasizing the importance of treatment with EOs in order to improve the antioxidant activity of honey. The best results were obtained in the case of applying the treatment with basil oil, where there is an increase in TPCcompared to the control even after 7 days of administration, values that remain constant even after one month of treatment. In a broad sense, flavonoids are pigments with a universal spread in plant, with more than 5000 compounds currently known, most of which have increased solubility in water [58]. The content of honey flavonoids (FC) is influenced by both geographical and floral origin and climatic conditions [66], highlighted the fact that there is a low correlation between the content of TPC and the FC. Our results show an increase in FC content after 7 days of treatment for all variants of EOs used, which demonstrates the effectiveness of supplementing bee feed with EO-enriched syrup. After Harvest II and III, there are variations in FC, either increases or decreases depending on the type of EO\({}_{\text{S}}\) administered. It should be noted that in the control group, the amount of FC increases from the first to the last harvest, which means that the intake of FC is ensured not only by the EOs syrup introduced in the bees' diet. Previous studies highlighted that FC in the honey from Romania [65] varies between 17.4-25.7 mgQE/100 g, 6.85-18.01 mgQE/100 g (Sicilian honey) [62], and between 7.66 to 16.23 mg QE/100 g in rape honey from Kosovo [67]. Another Romanian study reported that FC content of honey samples ranged between 0.91-2.42 mg QE/100 g in acacia honey, 4.70-6.98 mg QE/100 g in tiling honey, and between 11.53-15.33 mg QE/100 g in sunflower honey [68]. The highest AA value was recorded in our experiment, after administration of juniper EO (61.64%), but also for clove EO (57.93%) and basil EO (56.33%) comparatively with the control value (34.58%) after Harvest III. The increase in AA at the end of the experiment is noticeable for all experimental variants, including control, but to a lesser extent compared to EO\({}_{\text{S}}\) treatments.