## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Activity and Phenolic Content
Our findings indicate that SIEs are characterized by both a high total polyphenols content (162.38 mg GA/g) and high antioxidant activity (DPPH) (86.39%) (Tables 2 and 3). This is corroborated by [PERSON] et al. [36], who showed that butyl-methyl-ether and MeOH extractsof _S. scaradia_ showed superior antioxidant activity to other extracts. Conversely, EtOAC, BuOH, and rosmarinic acid were determined to have moderate to weak antioxidant activity by a \(\beta\)-carotene bleaching assay. Our study similarly shows EtOAC sideritis extracts as having the poorest antioxidant activity, FRAP, compared to the others (0.88 mg/g Trolox). The type of solvent is a major factor in extraction and a crucial determinant of the extract's antioxidant activity [37]. We have shown that, on average, ACT and MeOH were the most effective solvents for extracting total polyphenols content and total phenolic acids content from the plant material under study, likely contributing to the superior AAS-FRAP that was observed (1.57 and 1.49 mg/g Trolox, respectively). TF yields, on the other hand, proved to be the highest when AC and EtOAc were used (Table 2). For thymme, MeOH performed the best in extracting total polyphenols content and total phenolic acids content (179.57 mg GA/g and 141.09 mg CA/g), whereas ACT was superior for total flavonoids content (60.42 mg QE/g). In the case of sideritis, ACT allowed for the extraction of the highest amounts of total polyphenols content (189.39 mg GA/g) and total phenolic acids content (111.28 mg CA/g), while for total flavonoids content, the best was EtOAc (23.49 mg QE/g). [PERSON] et al. [30] determined the antioxidant activity and total polyphenols content of thymme, sage, and majoram extracts across various extraction solvents using the DPPH \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Plant Material**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Sideritis Aerial Parts**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Thymi Aerial Parts**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Sideritis Aerial Parts**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Sideritis Aerial Parts**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Thymi Aerial Parts**} \\  & & & & & & **Aerial Parts** \\ \hline ACT & 2.80 & 1.41 & 14.01 & 7.10 \\ MET & 6.20 & 5.56 & 31.05 & 27.82 \\ EtOH-H\({}_{2}\)O & 6.43 & 6.81 & 32.14 & 34.06 \\ EtOAc & 1.81 & 1.33 & 9.07 & 6.66 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Extraction and fractionation results of the tested plant material. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Solvent**} & **Sideritis** & **Thyme** & **Mean** & **Sideritis** & **Thyme** & **Mean** & **Sideritis** & **Thyme** & **Mean** \\ \cline{2-9}  & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**TPC (mg GA/g)**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**TFC (mg QE/g)**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**TPAC (mg CA/g)**} \\ \hline ACT & 189.39 a & 144.87 dc & 167.13 A & 20.63 d & 60.42 a & 40.52 A & 111.28 c & 38.89 f & 75.09 B \\ MET & 164.11 cb & 179.57 ba & 171.84 A & 12.34 f & 15.7 e & 14.02 B & 92.72 d & 141.09 a & 116.9 A \\ EtOH-H\({}_{2}\)O & 151.88 c & 125.4 d & 138.64 B & 10.57 f & 6.51 g & 8.54 C & 76.71 e & 119.1 b & 97.9 C \\ EtOAc & 144.12 dc & 121.39 d & 132.76 B & 23.49 c & 55.85 b & 39.67 A & 76.69 e & 15.94 g & 46.31 D \\ \hline Mean & 162.38 A & 142.81 B & 16.76 B & 34.62 A & 89.35 A & 78.75 B \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Polyphenol, flavonoid and phenolic acids content (per gram of extract) in the tested plant extracts.