## 3 Results and Discussion
Chemical processes occurring during the long-term heat treatment of garlic, leading to the production of its black counterpart, are primarily Maillard reactions [19; 20], chemical oxidation of phenols [49] or changes in the metabolism of organosulfur compounds in garlic [50], leading to the production of compounds originally absent from white garlic, as well as an increase in the content of bioactive components present in fresh, unprocessed garlic, such as polyphenolic compounds. Therefore, in this study, the total polyphenols content and the antioxidant activity of white (fresh) and black garlic as well as products of its processing (powder, spreading paste) were investigated, and the obtained results are presented in Figure 3.  
The conducted research showed significant differences in the content of total polyphenolic compounds in the tested garlic samples, with the significantly lowest (\(p\) < 0.05) content of these components being found in fresh, unprocessed white garlic (WG), where it was 6.05 \(\pm\) 0.07 mg GAE/1 g d.m., while in garlic subjected to long-term (45 days) heat treatment (70 \({}^{\circ}\)C) (BG), the total value of total polyphenols was on average 13.09 \(\pm\) 1.81 mg GAE/1 g d.m. and was two times higher than in the WG. The obtained results are confirmed by the studies of other authors, who found a two-tenth increase in the content of these components as a result of garlic fermentation processes [14; 15; 18; 31; 32; 38; 42; 51; 52]. According to [PERSON] et al. (2021) [25], the content of total polyphenols and flavonoids is higher the longer the heat treatment process continues. The authors showed a several-fold increase in the content of total polyphenols and an almost four-fold increase in the content of flavonoids in black garlic compared to fresh garlic. Similarly, [PERSON] et al. (2020) [21] found a several-fold increase in the content of phenolic components, at the same time showing a significant differentiation in the dynamics of the process of their synthesis. While in the initial phase of the aging process (0-7 days), the increase in the content of polyphenols was relatively small, and the synthesis was significantly higher with the lengthening of the aging process, reaching the maximum values on the 28 th day of heat treatment. The authors explain this process by the probable polymerization of polyphenols and the decomposition  
Figure 3: Total polyphenols content (**a**) and antioxidant activity (**b**) in white garlic and black garlic products. Values are means \(\pm\) standard deviation (\(n\) = 6). Different letters in bars (a–d) are significantly different (\(p\) < 0.05). WG—white garlic; BG-C—black garlic cloves; BG-F—black garlic powder; BG-S—black garlic spread. of macromolecules during long-term heat treatment of garlic in high temperature and humidity conditions. According to the literature, the differences in the growth dynamics of the content and profile of polyphenolic compounds result from the conditions used during the aging of garlic. The content of these components varies depending on the temperature [42; 51; 52], which probably results from their easier release from esterified and glycosylated complex structures under the influence of high temperature [51; 53] or time and high relative humidity [51; 52; 42], which in turn generates an increase in these components as a result of the later phases of the browning reaction [54]. The literature lacks data on the total polyphenolic content in various products obtained from black garlic. According to our research (Figure 3a), black garlic in the form of cloves (BG-C) contained two times more (13.08 \(\pm\) 0.13 mg GAE/1 g d.m.) polyphenols than WG. The powder produced from it had a significantly lower content (11.02 \(\pm\) 0.51 mg GAE/1 g d.m.). Interestingly, the spreading paste made from cloves of black garlic had significantly (\(p\) < 0.05) the highest content of total polyphenols among all tested black garlic products (15.16 \(\pm\) 0.08 mgvGAE/1 g d.m.