## 3 Results and Discussion
### Correlation Between Chemical Composition and Antibacterial Activity  
In order to highlight the interdependencies between the chemical parameters and the antibacterial activity exerted by the four extracts against two of the five strains analyzed, namely _Staphylococcus aureus_ and _Enterococcus faecalis_, the Pearson correlation between variables was performed (Figure 8). It is observed that there are strong positive correlations between the inhibition of _E. faecalis_ and the individual polyphenols, namely between the pairs _E. faecalis_/epictatechin (r = 0.99), _E. faecalis_/resveratrol (r = 0.96), _E. faecalis_/rosmarinic acid (r = 0.83), _E. faecalis_/ferulic acid (r = 0.81). The existence of these strong positive correlations between the degree of inhibition of _E. faecalis_ and the individual polyphenols analyzed suggests the possibility of using natural preparations based on these compounds, either as such or in combination with inhibitory chemicals, as antibacterial agents with applications in the food industry, hygiene, pharmacy or sanitation. Figure 8: Pearson correlation between chemical and microbiological parameters. There are no positive, strong correlations between the inhibition of the _E. faecalis_ strain and the content of macro- and microelements determined in the four types of sprouts analyzed. With the exception of K, which registers a moderate correlation (r = 0.38) in relation to _E. faecalis_, all other analyzed macro- and microelements are negatively correlated with the ability to inhibit the bacterial strain. Regarding the inhibitory capacity of individual polyphenols against _S. aureus_, it is observed that there are no strong positive correlations between the bacteria strains and the determined chemical components, either individual polyphenols or elementar composition. A moderate positive correlation is nevertheless observed between the pairs _S. aureus_/ferulic acid (r = 0.55), _S. aureus_/coumaric acid (r = 0.49), _S. aureus_/rosmarinic acid (r = 0.48). It is worth noting a very strong negative correlation (r = \(-\)0.97) recorded between _S. aureus_/Na pairs, which suggests a negative influence of excess Na from plant matrices on the inhibitory capacity of bacterial strains. No strong or moderately positive correlations were identified between the inhibition capacity of _S. aureus_ and the content of macro- or microelements. A weak positive correlation was recorded between the pairs _S. aureus_/Cu and _S. aureus_/Ca; the other analyzed elements have only negative correlations to the inhibition of the _S. aureus_ strain. The PCA analysis of the projection of the parameter by the first and second principal components (Figure 9) shows that component 1, the primary axis of variability, explains 98.967% of the variance. This component is dominated by variables strongly associated with TPC and the inhibition percentages of bacterial strains, particularly for _S. aureus_. Component 2 (0.808%), which represents a secondary source of variation, driven mainly by specific compounds such as epicatechin and the sample RS. Together, these components explain nearly all the variability in the data, indicating that the selected variables effectively capture the essential patterns in the dataset. TPC aligns strongly with Mg and LS/BS samples, highlighting a robust association between total polyphenols and magnesium concentrations in these samples. Resveratrol  
Figure 9: Projection of the parameter by the first and second principal components. and quercetin are closely positioned near TPC, indicating their significant contribution to the total polyphenol content. These compounds are widely recognized for their potent antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The PCA plot demonstrates that the inhibition of _E. faecalis_ and _S. aureus_ is driven by different polyphenols, reflecting the specificity of antimicrobial mechanisms. It can be observed that inhibition of _E. faecalis_ correlates strongly with resveratrol and ferulic acid.