## 3 Results and Discussion
### Profile and Concentrations of Phenolic Bioactive Compounds in Herts  
The HPLC results showed a medium variation in phenolic composition between the analyzed species, but the most pronounced differences were observed between the analyzed genus _Oregano_, _Thymus_ and _Rosmarinus_. A total of 14 phenolic compounds were tentatively identified in the tested extracts. The results are presented in Table 3. The main phenolic compounds of _Origanum vulgare_ were flavonoids, namely epicatechin gallate and apigenin. Rosmarinic acid, luteolin 7-O-glucoside (cyanroside) and quercetin 3-O-galactosidase were detected as major phenolic compounds of all the _Thymus_ species, whereas rosmarinic acid, quercetin and quercetin 3-O-galactoside were identified as major phenolic compounds of _Rosmarinus officinalis_. Rosmarinic acid was the dominant phenolic compound in rosmear of and all thyme species, reaching the highest value with an average of 416.07 mg/100 g in fresh biomass of rosmear. Such a high content of rosmarinic acid may be responsible for the high content of antioxidants and total phenolic content in rosmearty extracts as well as in tortillas with its addition. Our previous studies also confirm a relationship between the content of rosmarinic acid and the antioxidant activity of herbal extracts obtained from plants of the _Lamiaceae_ family [40]. Carnosic acid, belonging to the diterpenoids, was the second acid identified after rosmarinic acid, but only present in rosmearty, while caffe acid was present in all the plants studied. According to [PERSON] et al. [55], the diterpenoids carnosic acid and carnosol, together with rosmarinic acid and the flavonoids present in rosmearty, are responsible for the bioactivity of rosmearty extracts. Among flavonoids, epicatechin gallate was the most abundant in _Origanum vulgare_ and _Thymus vulgaris_, while luteolin and quercetin derivatives were characteristic for all the _Thymus_ species and _Rosmarinus officinalis_. Apigenin was detected in _Origanum vulgare_, _Thymus vulgaris_ and _Thymus_\(\times\)_citiridorus_, while naringenin was present in _Origanum vulgare_ and all the _Thymus_ species. Among anthocyanins, the most abundant was procyanidin B2, present in _Origanum vulgare_ and all the _Thymus_ species.  
The results of our study are in agreement with the literature data. Rosmarinic acid is considered to be the major phenolic acid in plants of the _Lamiaceae_ family and has been reported as the major phenolic compound in _Thymus vulgaris_[49], _Thymus x citrotorus_[56], _Thymus seryllum_ and many other species of thyme [57], as well as in _Origanum vulgare_[49; 58] and _Rosmarinus officinalis_[59]. In the case of flavonoids, which are considered to be the group of phenolic compounds with strong health benefits, apigenin has been reported to be dominant in sage (_Salvia officinalis_), marjoram (_Origanum majorana_) and common thyme (_Thymus vulgaris_) [60], as well as in other species of thyme [57]. On the other hand, [PERSON] et al. [58] reported luteolin as the most abundant flavonoid in _Origanum vulgare_. Similar to our results, naringenin has been reported but at lower concentrations in _Origanum vulgare_[58] and many thyme species [57; 60] but not in rosmearty. Among other flavonoids, quercetin and its derivatives, as well as luteolin derivatives, were reported by many authors in the studied species [49; 56; 57; 60].  
For future studies, it is important to carry out a deeper analysis of the phenolic compounds as well as an analysis of the volatile compounds composition of all the species studied. For this reason, it is necessary to extend our investigation for ultra-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) to confirm all the tentatively identified compounds and gas chromatography (GC) as a good analytical technique for the quantitative determination of volatile compounds belonging to terpenoids.