# Aromatic and Nutritional Composition of Edible Flowers of Garden Garlic and Wild Leek
## 4 Discussion
### Bioactive Components and Minerals
The determination of total polyphenol content via the Folin-Ciocalteu method used in this study is basically based on an electron transfer reaction, which partly explains the correlation generally found between total phenolic content and antiradical activity, but does not provide a complete idea of the nature of phenolic components in the extracts [62]. These theories could explain why antioxidant activity is not strictly positively correlated with the amounts of phenolic compounds (Figure 3), possibly because in addition to polyphenols, there may be other effective chelating agents, which can also contribute to antioxidant activity. Figure 3: Relationship between antiradical activity taken via a DPPH assay and total polyphenolic content in _Tulbaghia violacea_ (orange) and _Allium ampleoprasum_ (blue) flowers. The content of mineral elements is one of the interesting aspects that can be considered to include edible flowers in human nutrition [36]. Each of the mineral elements fulfils a vital function in the flowers, also playing a crucial role in the formation of secondary metabolites [63], which are responsible for the pharmacological effects of the plant. [PERSON] et al. [3] in a study of the composition of dahlia flowers with different petal colors, indicates that calcium and potassium are the majority elements, and the composition is higher when the petal color is orange and pink. In the available literature, several authors show values of the mineral composition of edible flowers [36; 51; 64; 65]. Few works show concentrations related to the flowers of aromatic plants, such as calendula, lavelender, echinacea or chamomile [66; 67; 68; 69]. Some works even provide data on the mineral composition of edible flowers from legume plants [70] and from apple flowers [53]. According to [PERSON] et al. [36], phosphorus is the second most important mineral element in edible flowers. [PERSON] et al. [71] indicate that the average potassium content in different flowers of ornamental plants is 300.3 mg per 100 g of dry flowers, values slightly similar to those found in this study. These authors report a high variability in potassium concentrations, thus, the flowers of _Paenotia officinalis_ L. concentrate less of this element than the flowers of the _Allium_ species studied. The different contributions of potassium as a fertilizer and the composition of the soil are the factors that mainly influence these differences. In general, the results of macrominerals in the studied flowers are in line with a previous study which indicated that those five elements were the most abundant in a high matrix of aromatic and ornamental species of edible flowers [36; 72]. Studies on the mineral composition of flowers [36; 72] indicate that the iron contents for various edible flowers range between 0.60 and 2.00 mg 100 g\({}^{-1}\) of fresh flower, while [PERSON] et al. [71] report average concentrations of 15.49 mg Fe per 100 g of dry flower. The results of [PERSON] [70] on broad bean flowers report iron concentrations of 5.59 mg per 100 g of fresh flower. Iron concentrations in the present study can be considered high and position these edible flowers as a source of iron, especially for garden garlic flowers. The recommended nutritional intake (RNI) for iron varies according to age and gender, and on average it can be set at 14 mg. This amount of iron could be reached by consuming flowers, in this sense, 100 g of garden garlic flowers provide 41.5% of the RNI, and considering that it is mainly consumed unprocessed, the bioavailability of these elements would be very high. The rest of the microminerals evaluated in the flowers of garden garlic and wild leek show concentrations similar to those reported in the literature [70; 71; 72], with some exceptions of variability in relation to the concentration, for example in manganese, or due to the inability to contrast the data, for example in boron.